C3 
“ments white, flender, unconneéted. Antherz blue, forming a hollow 
angular cylinder. Germen conical, crowned with fhort hairs. Style 
filiform. Stigmata two, rolled back, blue. Seeds numerous, naked, 
angular, lodged at the bottom of the calyx. ; ; 
It commonly grows about the borders of corn fields, and flowers 
in July and Augutft. , . 
This plant belongs to the fame family with the garden endive, and 
by fome botanifts has been fuppofed to be the fame plant in its un+ 
cultivated ftate; but the endive commonly ufed as fallad is an annual, 
or at moft a biennial plant, and its parent is now known to be the 
Cichorium Endivia, eee 
It appears from Horace and others," that the Cichorea was com- 
monly eaten by the Romans; and according to Pliny * this name 
fignified the wild {pecies of the plant. The Intybus and Seris are 
ae mentioned as its congeners, the latter implying the cultivated 
ecies, | 
, Wild Succory, or Cichory, as it has been called, “ abounds with 
a milky juice, of a penetrating bitterifh tafte, and of no remarkable 
fmell, or particular favour: the roots are bitterer than thé leaves or 
ftalks, and thefe much more fo than the flowers.” 
By culture in gardens, and blanching, it lofes its bitternefs, and 
may be eaten early in the {pring in fallads. The roots, if gathered 
before the ftems fhoot up, are alfo eatable, and when dried may be 
made into bread.* 
The roots and leaves of this plant are ftated by Lewis to be “ very 
ufeful aperients, ating mildly and without irritation, tending rather 
to abate than to increafe heat, and which may therefore be given 
with fafety in he€tic and inflammatory cafes. Taken freely, they 
keep the belly open, or produce a gentle diarrhea; and when thus 
* ~ ——— Me pafcunt olive 
Me cichorea; levefque malvz. Hor. Od. 31. 
«« Cichoreay & teneris frondens laCtucula fibris.” Fuvenal: 
Sb Lil, wx. es 8. © Withering. l. ¢. 
continued 
