During its first year, the beet puts out leaves; it neither flowers nor fruits, but it eats and drinks a great deal. And as it does not use up any of this food in flowering or fruiting, it is able to lay by much of it in its root, which grows large and heavy in consequence. When the next spring comes on, the beet plant is not obliged, like so many of its brothers and sisters, to set out to earn its living. This is provided already. And so it bursts into flower without delay, its food lying close at hand in its great root.
Fig. 109
So you see that a fleshy root, like that of the beet, does three things:—
1. It holds the plant in place.
2. It provides it with food and drink.
3. It acts as a storehouse.
These plants that lay by food for another year are useful as food for man. Their well-stocked roots are taken out of the ground and eaten by us before the plant has had the chance to use up its food in fulfilling its object in life, that of fruiting. Of course, when it is not allowed to live long enough to flower and fruit, it brings forth no young plants. So a habit which at first was of use to the plant becomes the cause of its destruction.
Perhaps you think that the white potato (Fig. [110]) is a plant with a fleshy root.
