THE TOMATO

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3588, 18 January 1927, Page 4

THE TOMATO

FRUIT OR VEGETABLE?

Things are not always what they seem. The Appeal Court of England on one historic occasion sat for a couple of weeks to decide whether a duck was an animal or a bird, a question that a layman would have settled without the slightest- difficulty. But even the layman may have reason to be puzzled in connection with the delectable tomato. Is it a fruit or a vegetable The same mom,cutouts question has cropped up in England; where it has apparently been omitted from the “list of exempted fruits” in the Shops Early Closing A'et. Nor did a Court case sufficiently clear the matter up. One of the contestants retired complacently out of range after a declaration that fruit grew on bushes and trees, and tomatoes did not, hut it was met with argument that, the tomato was both a fruit and a vegetable, this only serving to complicate matters. Eventually the dictum of a learned authority on botany was sought, and his opinion was: “A fruit is the Opened ovary of a flowering plant with its contents, and whatever parts arc consolidated or intimately connected with it.” Thus he held Hint the tomato was a fruit, hut he apparently clouded the issue somewhat by including cucumbers in the same category. The one and only Webster —he of dictionary fame —does not throw a flood of light- on the perplexing problem, but states succintly that the tomato is the fruit of a plant of the nightshade family; likewise that it has refreshing, appetising, and corrective qualities. The tomato, by the way, carries the imposing official name of lycopersieum esculentum, and is known in some countries as the love apple. First cousins, or even more- closely related, are the egg plant and (Jie tree tomato, both obviously fruits and not vegetables. One can easily imagine the difficulties that might arise were shopkeepers with exemption from the ordinary closing hours allowed to retail fruit but not-vegetables, also the possibility of IheiAppealeoiirtior even the Privy Council being asked to say 'onee and for all under which legal heading the tomato, or even the cucumber, might be included. Fortunately in New Zealand the legal status of the delectable tomata does not occasion trouble, as fruit and vegetables alike come under the heading of perishable stock and can be sold side by side for consumption on the premises, provided that the shopkeepers has the necessary exemption to be open for trade during hours when the average business place is closed. Some time ago much time was taken up in a New Zealand court in connection with a pound of apples bought in a shop on a Sunday, but eaten on the roadway outside, and the point at issue— consumption outside of the premises—resulted in a vast amount of legal argument. Possibly had the purchase been a

pound of tomatoes the subject of identity would have been probed to the utmost and quite a different aspect would have been touched upon.