266 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



and keepynge of artichokes," is still preserved in 

 the Harleian Library, of which it forms the 615th 

 number. 



Gerard has left us correct representations of both 

 the French and the Globe varieties, but makes no 

 mention of their country or their introduction ; we 

 may therefore conclude that they were become 

 common in 1596. By reason of the great moisture 

 of our climate, and the attention which was paid to 

 its cultivation, the artichoke soon became so much 

 improved in size and flavour that the Italians sent 

 for plants from England, deeming them to be of 

 another kind ; but they soon returned to their 

 natural size when restored to that country. In its 

 wild state the plant is said to be taller, more downy 

 and spinous, than it appears in our kitchen-gardens. 

 It is cultivated in almost every part of Europe, but 

 in England it is grown rather as a luxury than 

 a profitable succulent. On account of the great 

 size of its roots, and of its penetrating the soil 

 so deep, it withstands the dry and hot summers 

 about Paris, where they are most extensively culti- 

 vated and most abundantly used. Artichokes are 

 a favourite dish at a French breakfast ; sometimes 

 they are eaten uncooked in a young state as a salad. 

 The young heads, when about 2 in. in diameter, make 

 excellent pickle. In England they are generally 

 boiled, and the scales of the calyx are then plucked 

 off one by one, the lower part of them dipped in 

 melted butter, [and the fleshy substance sucked 

 from the rest. But there is generally so little to be 

 obtained, as almost to justify the observation of a 

 raw country servant, who, having waited at supper 

 when artichokes made one of the dishes, was eager 

 on his return to the kitchen to taste a kind of food 

 he had never seen before, but to his great disap- 

 pointment, finding little more than a horny sub- 

 stance which equally defied his tongue and his 

 teeth, declared with great naivete that gentlefolk 

 seemed to him to have strange fancies, for, as far as 

 he could discover, one leaf would do as well to lick 

 up butter as a thousand. It was fortunate for him 

 that he did not encounter what is emphatically 

 styled, the "choke," from not an ill-founded persua- 

 sion that any unlucky wight who should happen to 

 get it into his throat would certainly be choked. 

 This consists of the unopened florets and bristles 

 which stand upon the receptacle of the compound 

 flower, and must be carefully cleared away before 

 the epicure can arrive at the receptacle itself, tlie 

 bottom, as we call it, or le cul, as it is more elegantly 

 termed by our polished and refined neighbours on 

 the other side of the Channel, which is undeniably 

 the most plentiful as well as the most delicate part 

 of the viand ; and in France it is esteemed a branch 

 of good housewifery to preserve this part to the use 

 of the family during the winter. (Rees's "Cyclo- 

 paedia") 



The artichoke, like the asparagus, is naturally 



a maritime plant, or at least one which thrives best 

 on soils where there is a mixture of saline or alka- 

 line matter. In the time of John Evelyn, 1699, the 

 island of Jersey was famous for its artichokes, 

 on account of the seaweed used in manuring the 

 land; and it is said that in the present day this 

 vegetable is successfully cultivated in the Orkney 

 Islands from the same cause. 



Medicinally, the stalks are considered aperient 

 and diuretic; the leaves in their natural state, 

 boiled in white wine whey, are thought beneficial in 

 the case of jaundice; and when cut into pieces and 

 steeped in sherry wine, are an excellent antibilious 

 medicine. 



The generic name Cytiara is said to be derived 

 from the word cuiis, because, according to Colu- 

 mella, the land for artichokes should be manured 

 with ashes ; and Gerard says the same thing. 

 Parkinson says it is so called from the colour of its 

 leaves. Heathen mythology informs us that Cynara 

 was a young and beautiful girl who had the misfor- 

 tune to displease one of the gods, who instantly 

 metamorphosed her into an artichoke. (Ruell, i. 

 20.) Respecting the origin of the word artichoke, 

 various conjectures have been formed. It has been 

 by some authors derived from the Greek word 

 coccalon, which signifies a fir-cone, with the Arabic 

 al prefixed; this, again, has been denied, and 

 the word drawn from the Arabic name, harxaf, or 

 harchiaf. 



The artichoke has been introduced into the 

 Pampas of South America, and has spread over a 

 large tract of country in such abundance as to form 

 impenetrable masses when in flower. {Fide Oliver, 

 "Lesson in Elementary Botany.") 



Hampden G. Glasspoole. 



THE RESTING SPORES OF THE POTATO 

 FUNGUS {continued). 



By Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S. 



SINCE this subject has been made public, Mr. 

 Carruthers has kindly furnished me with a copy 

 of Dr. Farlow's paper on the Potato Rot, extracted 

 from the "Bulletin of the Bussy Institution," 

 part iv., a paper 1 had not previously seen. As 

 some of Dr. Farlow's practical observations seem 

 to have a direct bearing on some of the points 

 raised by me, I will conclude by extracting one or 

 two sentences :— " The disease is first recognized 

 by brown spots on the leaves" (p. 320). "If we 

 examine any potato-plant affected by the rot, even 

 before any spots have appeared on the leaves, we 

 shall always find these threads in the leaves, stem } 

 and, in fact, nearly the whole plant" fp. 322). 

 ".The Peronospora is much more easily affected by 

 moisture than the potato-plant itself." " Suppose 

 the temperature to keep equally warm, and the 



