So do cucumbers, does the scientist in you object to they being called a vegetable?
Funny you should ask about cucumbers. Actually the Cornell Department of Horticulture item I posted in 599 was about cucumbers. Here is the rest of that particular quote:
Q: Is a cucumber a fruit or a vegetable?
A: It is technically a fruit. From a botanical perspective, a fruit is the mature ovary of a plant, such as an apple, melon, cucumber, or tomato. From the common, every day "grocery store perspective," we tend to use the word fruit with respect to fruits eaten fresh as desserts - apples, peaches, cherries, etc. - and not to items cooked or used in salads. So, cucumbers tend to be lumped in with vegetables because of the way they are used (cooked and in salads), but botanists will call them fruits because they develop from the reproductive structures of plants. From the Cornell Department of Horticulture.
Apparently the scientist in me agrees with the botanists at the Cornell Department of Horticulture.
And it seems that the botanists at the Cornell Department of Horticulture agree with the U.S. Supreme Court that produce like cucumbers and tomatoes 'tend to be lumped in with vegetables because of the way they are used...' I'm sure they would have found the Nix v. Heddon decision to be entirely logical.