Fruit? Vegetable? Herb?

[Jeffrey Kirby]

I think we are missing the point here. 

You are all thinking in one frame of mind: scientifically, or close to it 
in any case.

One must remember that vegetables and fruits and herbs came before 
science, and that the naming of them came before science. It's a fuzzy 
definition at best. But yes, if you want to try to be scientific, a fruit 
is produced to disperse the progeny created in the plasmogamy and 
karyogamy of two gametes. This places things we know as fruits, like 
apples, and cucumbers, and tomatoes, and melons, and mushrooms (a 
mushroom of the division Basidiomycota is purely N+N hyphae making up a 
fruiting body for distribution of the spores), and juniper berries (which 
are normally considered herbs) all together. 

Vegetables, on the other hand, I can't place a solid definition on. I
would assume that they are some part of the plant other than the fruit 
that is eaten. 

But herbs, which under the above classification are more likely aleady 
vegetables are different! First off, herbs don't have to be dried to be 
herbs. Second, do you eat herbs in quantity? No (at least I hope not). 
Herbs are all those plant parts which are used because they have volatile 
compounds in them that flavor things so nicely (in small quantities). 


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Jeffrey A. Kirby -- Jester of Xanadu -- ez043438 at dale.ucdavis.edu

It's actually not Brad's fault. I was lying on account of my insecurity 
and mental instability.