FRUITS AND THEIR USES 



63 



Cross section of a cucumber, a 

 pcpo. Note the number of 

 locules or spaces in the ovary. 

 How and where are the seeds 

 attached ? 



Garden Fruits. —p Groon plants and especially vegetables have 



I'dine to jilay an important part in tho dietary of man. The dis- 

 eases known as scur\y and beri-beri, 



the latter the cnrse of the far Eastern 



navies, ha%e been largely prevented by 



adding vegetables and fruit juices to 



the dietary of the sailors. People in 



this country are beginning to find that 



more vegetables and less meat are 



better than the meat diet so often used. 



]Market gardening forms the lucrative 



business of many thousands of people 



near our great cities. Some of the 



most important fleshy fruits— squash, 



cucumbers, pumpkins, and melons — 



are examples of the pepo type of fruit; tomatoes and peppers are 



types of berries in botanical language (for a berry is any soft 



or juicy fruit containing small seeds). 

 The berries — strawberries, raspberries, 

 and blackberries — of our gardens bring 

 in an annual income of 125,000,000 to 

 om- fruit raisers. Beans and peas are 

 important as foods because of their 

 relati\ely large amount of proteid. 

 Peanuts, rather curiously, are true leg- 

 umes, like peas and beans, but develop 

 underground. Camiing green corn, 

 peas, beans, and tomatoes has become an 

 important business. 



Orchard and Other 

 Fruits. — In the United 



States over one hundred and seventy-five million 



bushels of apples are grown e\ery year. Pears, 



plums, apricots, peaches, and nectarines also form 



large orchards, csiiecially in California. Nuts 



form one of our important articles of food, largely 



because of the large amount of proteid contained 



in them. 



Cross section of a green pepper, 

 a berry. How many locules 

 has the ovary? Note the 

 arrangement of the seeds. 



The blackberry, a 

 fruit made up of 

 many separate ripe 

 carpels. 



