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In everyday language, a berry is a small, pulpy and often edible fruit. Berries are usually juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet or sour, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present.〔 Common examples are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries; and red- and blackcurrants.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Berry )〕 In Britain soft fruit is a horticultural term for such fruits.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Berry )〕 The scientific usage of the term berry differs from common usage. In scientific terminology, a berry is a fruit produced from the ovary of a single flower in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible fleshy portion (botanically the pericarp). The definition includes many fruits that are not commonly known as berries, such as grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines) and bananas. Fruits excluded by the botanical definition include strawberries and raspberries. A plant bearing berries is said to be ''bacciferous'' or ''baccate''. Many berries are edible, but some are poisonous to humans, such as the fruits of the potato, the deadly nightshade and pokeweed, and can cause harm. Others, such as the white, red mulberry, and elderberry are poisonous when unripe, but are edible in their ripe form. Berries are eaten worldwide and often used in jams, preserves, cakes or pies. Some berries are commercially important. The berry industry varies from country to country as do types of berries cultivated or growing in the wild. Many berries such as raspberries and strawberries have been bred for thousands of years and are distinct from their wild counterparts, while some berries such as lingonberries and cloudberries grow almost exclusively in the wild. == History == Berries have been valuable as a food source since before the start of agriculture to humans, and remain among the primary food sources of other primates. They were a seasonal staple for early hunter-gatherers for thousands of years, and wild berry gathering remains a popular activity in Europe and North America today. In time, humans learned to store berries so that they could be used in the winter, and they may be made into fruit preserves, and among Native Americans, mixed with meat and fats as pemmican. Berries also began to be cultivated in Europe and other countries. Some species of blackberries and raspberries of the genus ''Rubus'' have been cultivated since the 17th century, while smooth-skinned blueberries and cranberries of the genus ''Vaccinium'' have been cultivated in the United States for over a century.〔 In Japan, between the 10th and 18th centuries, the term "''ichibigo''" (which later became "''ichigo''") referred to many berry crops. The most widely cultivated berry of modern times, however, is the strawberry which is produced globally at twice the amount of all other berry crops combined. The strawberry was mentioned by ancient Romans who thought it had medicinal properties, but it was then not a staple of agriculture.〔 Woodland strawberries began to be grown in gardens in France in the 14th century, musky-flavored strawberry (''F. moschata'') in late 16th century in European gardens, and later Virginia strawberry in Europe and the United States.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History of the Strawberry )〕 The most commonly consumed strawberry, the garden strawberry (''F. ananassa''), is an accidental hybrid of Virginia strawberry and a Chilean variety ''Fragaria chiloensis''. It was first noted by a French gardener around the mid 18th century that when ''F. moschata'' and ''F. virginiana'' were planted in between rows of ''F. chiloensis'', the Chilean strawberry would bear abundant and unusually large fruits. Soon after Antoine Nicolas Duchesne began to study the breeding of strawberries and made several discoveries crucial to the science of plant breeding, such as the sexual reproduction of strawberry. Later in the early 1800s, English breeders of strawberry made varieties of ''F. ananassa'' which were important in strawberry breeding in Europe, and hundreds of cultivars have since been produced through the breeding of strawberries. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「berry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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