516 USEFUL PLANTS AND PLANT PRODUCTS 



Any of the grains may be made to yield starch for food or 

 for laundry or manufacturing purposes, but the greater part of 

 that produced in this country is obtained from corn, which 

 contains about 60 per cent of it. Moldy or otherwise damaged 

 grain can be utilized to some extent in starch making. 



Corn also contains in the embryo of the grain from 3 to 6 

 or more per cent of oil, which is now largely extracted for use 

 as food and for various manufacturing purposes. 



492. Leguminous seeds. Several kinds of seeds of the pea 

 family (Leguminosce) an immense family, comprising some 7000 

 species are important articles of food. Beans, as every one 

 knows, are used as food in all stages, from the time when the 

 pods are half grown until the seeds are entirely ripe and dry. 

 In the latter condition, when properly cooked, they constitute 

 one of the cheapest and most concentrated forms of proteid food. 



Peas, whether " green " or dry, have much the same nutritive 

 value as beans in the same stage of maturity. Various canned 

 products of beans and of peas are now prepared on a large scale. 



Peanuts are the seeds of a leguminous plant which forces its 

 growing pods underground, where they remain during and after 

 the process of ripening. The domestic consumption of these seeds 

 is large, and they constitute a considerable article of export. 



Several other kinds of leguminous seeds, such as broad bean?, 

 lentils, and chick peas, are extensively used as foods in parts of 

 Europe, but are not as yet important articles of diet in our own 

 country. 



493. Other seeds. The remaining kinds of seeds which are 

 important as food are mostly known as nuts. Some of these 

 are really drupes, like the cocoanut and the walnut (Sec. 183, 

 Fig. 166, V), while others, like the Brazil nut and chestnuts, are 

 seeds. 



From the palm family, which is of supreme importance 

 within the tropics, only one kind of so-called nut, the cocoa- 

 nut, is commonly in use among us. The abundant endosperm 

 of its seed is largely eaten raw and much used in cookery. 



