200 FLOWERS OF AVASTE PLACES, ETC. 



sharp i)ricklcs it was recommended tor "stitch" or pain in tlie side. 

 The achenes are large and contain oil, formerly used lor emulsion, 

 and have also been used as food for goldfinches and other birds. 



The plant v\as formerly cultivated, the young leaves being used 

 as a salad in spring, or boiled. The young stalks were peeled, and 

 soaked in water to make tlu.'m less l)itter. The second spring the 

 root is eaten like .salsify, and the receptacle is pulpy, tasting (and being 

 eaten) like artichokes. 



EssKNTi.vL Specific Cii.\k.\ctf.rs: — 



173. Si/ybujii inariaiuiiii, Gaertn. — .Stem stout, rigid, branched. 

 leaves oblong, wa\')', amplcxicaul, with while \eins, sessile, glabrous, 

 flowerheads ])urple, involucral spines recurved, appressed below. 



Chicory ((."ichorium Intvlins, L.) 



Like other cultivated or casual plants, our knowledge of its range 

 and age is derived from its present-day distribution in Europe, 

 N. Africa, .Siberia, N.W. India. In .\merica it is only an introduction. 

 In Great IJritain it is iound throughout the Peninsula. Channel. Thames, 

 Anglia, Se\'c-rn provinces. In S. Wales it is absent from IJrecon. 

 Radnor; in N. Wales from Montgomery and Merioneth. It is found 

 throughout the Trent province, but not in the Mersey provinces, the 

 H umber, Tyne, and Lakes provinces. It is rare in England, im- 

 probably natixe in Scotland, Ireland, and the Channel Islands. 



Chicory is a casual plant which is always more or less a follower of 

 man, being associated with weeds of cultivation. Sometimes it is 

 found in towns, in areas fenced in as building plots, or in a cornfield, 

 or perchance a fowl-run in an orchard. 



This beautiful wild llowt-r has a thick, yellow, milk\', spindle-shaped 

 root. The stem is rough, tall, rigid, wiry, twig-like, woody, with wide- 

 spreading and ascending branches. The lower lea\-es have lobes each 

 side of a stalk, turned backwards, slightly rough ; the stem-leaves are 

 smooth or nearly so, alternate, lance-shaped, clasping, entire, antl 

 axillary, paired, and more or less stalkless. 



The flowerheads are of a beautiful blue colour, open in sun.shine, 

 but soon fading. They are stalkless. paired, borne in the a.xils of the 

 upper leaves, or terminal. Linnaeus said they opened at 5 and closed 

 at TO at Upsala. Kerner, at Innsbruck, found them o])en at 6-7, closing 

 at 2-3 p.m. The involucre is double, with lance-shaped phyllaries, 

 broad at the base, and the outer ones are covered with a glandular 

 fringe of hairs. 



