In fact, in 1893 the Supreme Court of the United Stated curiously decreed the tomato a vegetable, although recognizing that botanically speaking it is a fruit. This unusual declaration was based on the existence of an 1883 tariff that charged ten percent on imported vegetables, including tomatoes. A frustrated tomato importer decided to challenge the tariff, arguing that tomatoes were actually a fruit and thus should be excluded from the vegetable tariff. The Supreme Court agreed that tomatoes were botanically a fruit, but argued that they were commonly grown in kitchen gardens with vegetables and treated as vegetables in markets and American households. In other words, the United States Government wanted its tariff money—the heck with botany!