HERBAGE-VEG ETABLES 



53 



Fig. 43. — Beet. A, root. B, leaf. C, .small flowering branch. D, a flower 

 just opened. E, vertical section of a flower-bud showing a bract, (6), a 

 layer of crystals in the ovai'y wall, k, and, nectar glands (d, d). F, 

 stamen, back view. G, a flower the same as D l)ut older. H, seed. 

 J, the same cut in half, to show seed-coat and the germ coiled around 

 the seed-food in the center. A-C, reduced, D~J variously enlarged. 

 (Baillon, Volkens.) 



get as much nutriment from them as from grains or pulse, a 

 very much larger amount must be eaten. It should not be 

 supposed, however, that the indigestible parts of what we 

 eat are altogether useless; for it has been observed in various 

 experiments that digestive organs commonly work to better 

 advantage when the nutritious materials undergoing diges- 

 tion are present not in concentrated form but diluted, as it 

 were, with a certain amount of finely divided cellulose or 

 other harmless material which majr act mechanically. 



36. Herbage-vegetables may be defined as those which 

 yield us nutriment in shoots developed above ground. They 



