Fruit? Vegetable? Herb?

[Stephen J Bungard]

In article <9502281356.AA12158 at 3b2adm.mckendree.edu>
           smeissne at 3B2ADM.MCKENDREE.EDU "scott meissner" writes:

> You ask if a banana is a fruit or a vegetable.  
> 
> Fruits all are derived from flowers, vegetables come
> from stems, leaves, or roots (or on occasion flower
> buds!).  

This is, of course, perfectly correct scientifically but it seems to me that
there are difficulties in the popular use of these terms eg:

Is rhubarb (petioles) fruit or veg to your average consumer?

How about tomatoes (fruit used as a salad vegetable)?

And many people think of mushrooms as vegetables when they are not even 
plants.....

These views may be a UK-centric.  I would be interested to hear how these 
terms are used elsewhere.

-- 
Stephen J Bungard      aka  sbungard at zenecabp.demon.co.uk       |   DO NOT   |
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