335 



• 



: . . • with an Artichoke, but only a little likeness 01 taste 

 in the dressed root; neither came it from Jerusalem, or out of 

 Asia, but out of America." So within tour years of its first arrival 



called Jerusalem artichoke, and 



in 



twelve years' time that name was prevalent. Yet neither of 

 these authors suggests any explanation of the name Jerusalem, 

 nor do any of their successors, until Sir J. E. Smith, in 1807, put 

 r • forward the theory that it is a corruption of the Italian Girasole, 



which is now the common name in Italy, both as a popular and 

 as a Book-term, for the sunflower Helianthus annuus. Smith 

 refers to no authority, but merely says in his Introduction to 

 Botany (1807) p. 108, note: "a corruption, I presume, of the 

 Italian name Girasole Articiocco, as the plant was first brought 

 from Peru to Italy, and thence propagated throughout Europe." 

 The same statement — apparently a mere guess bolstered up by the 

 false story of the first importation — was repeated by him in Kees' 

 Cyclopaedia vol, xviii. (1819). Smith's great authority spread 

 this theory far and wide. It has been uncritically accepted by 

 Phillips, History of Cultivated Vegetables (1822) L, p. 294, by 

 W. B. Booth in Lindley & Moore's Treasury of Botany (1866) 

 p. 575,* and even by such weighty and careful authors as 

 Alphonse de Candolle, Geog. Bot. ii. f p. 824, note (l&V) , Trum- 

 bull and Gray in Am. Journ. Sei., 3rd series, xiii. p. 352 (1877), 

 and Hooker in Bot. Mag. liii., 7545 (1897j.t 



Outside the ranks of botanists we find Thomas Love Peacock 

 writing in 1861+ "We have an excellent old vegetable, the 

 • artichoke, of which we eat the head ; we have another of subse- 

 quent introduction, of which we eat the root, and which we also 

 call artichoke. . . . This last is a species of helianthus or 

 suuflower. . . . It is therefore a girasol, or turn-to-the-sim. 

 From this girasol we have made Jerusalem, and from th* 

 Jerusalem artichoke we make Palestine soup." 



That there is nothing shocking to scientific philology in such 

 a derivation is apparent from Max Miiller's Lectures on the 

 Science of Language, 2nd series, p. 368 (1868) ; " There is a soup 

 called Palestine soup. It is made, I believe", of artichokes called 



Jerusalem artichoke, § but the Jerusalem artichoke is so called 

 from a mere misunderstanding. The artichoke, being a kind of 

 sunflower, was called in Italian girasole, from the Latin gyrus, 

 and sol, snn. Hence Jerusalem artichokes and Palestine soups." 

 Here the matter rested until the sceptical mind of a prince of 

 gardeners led him to e 

 for March 30th, 1918 



express doubt in the Gardeners' Cbroni 

 , n. 140. " Speaking for myself," wri 



cle 



ites 



Mr. Yieary Gibbs. "I disbelieve profoundly in this derivation. 



I doubt if any evidence can be produced that the Italians have 

 ever called this vegetable ' Girasole.' " Since reading this start- 

 lino- remark the present writer has made every effort, but in vain, 



Quoted and apparently relied on in the Oxford English Dictionary, sub 

 voce Artichoke 2. 



t Hooker's article contains some bibliographical inaccuracies. 



X Gryll Grange, p. 1. 



§ Max Miiller's botany is less trustworthy than his philology. 





