From: don.freeman@idcbbs.com (Don Freeman) 
Subject: alt.folklore.urban  Frequ
Date: 1 Jun 93 21:20:00 GMT

re: FAQ...

TC>Tb.Tomatoes are not vegetables, they're berries.  [Thanks, Scott C.]
^
I don't know if this will help in classifying it as 100% true as opposed
to "believed to be true" but:

"How to Identify Plants" by H.D. Harrington (Professor of Botany &
Curator of the Herbarium, Colorado State University), a very well done
and reliable text on plant identification and classification defines a
berry as such:

"A fleshy fruit formed from one compound ovary containing few to
many seeds.  This fruit appears in the key as formed from a superior
ovary, however, the term is often loosely used to include pulpy
fruits formed from an inferior ovary but not resembling a pepo or
pome."

The book also explicitly uses the tomato as an example of a berry.

-Don Freeman

P.S. Pepo is the term used to describe fruit such as watermelon &
cucumber and Pome is the type of fruit that an apple is.

* KingQWK 1.05 # 80 * don.freeman@idcbbs.com

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