144 COMPOSITE 



to three feet high. The landscape is just at that season rich with lovely 

 flowers : — 



" Bursting like some snow-flake from the emerald hedges 



Bindweeds out profusely throw their petals white, 

 Nightshade flowers with centred gold, and wings of purple edgeS; 



Mix with gay convolvuli, and vetclies red and bright : 

 Blue blooms the Succory, each bud than sapphire brighter, 



Puri)le-spiked wild thyme, in amethystine pride, 

 Scatters aromatic scents, of bees the sweet inviter. 



While topaz-like tlie agrimony's colunms rise beside." 



This Succory grows wild, more or less, in all the countries of Europe. In 

 France it is called Chicor<fe ; in G-ermany, Cichorie ; and in Holland, Sukerey. 

 The Italians call it Cicoria ; the Spaniards, Achicoria ; the Russians, Zikorifa. 

 De Theis remarks upon its name, that Bodneus, Linnaeus, and others have 

 derived it from the Greek words, "to come," and "field"; that is to say, a 

 plant which grows wild in the field — or everywhere — but that this etymology 

 is over-strained. It is far more natural, he says, to suppose that the Egyptians, 

 who used this plant in great quantities, would have communicated to the 

 Greeks, along with the manner of preparing it, its Egyptian name, which 

 appears from Forskhal to be Chicounjeh. Pliny observed that the Chicory 

 was a very important plant in Egypt, and it is stated that at the present 

 day this and some very similar plants constitute half the food of the Egyptians. 

 In the same manner, doubtless, the specific names of Enclma and Intyhus are 

 both derived from HemUbeh, which is the Arabic name of the plant. It seems 

 probable that the Chicory of Theophrastus, which was used by the ancients, 

 was our Wild Succory, since its names through Europe are but corruptions of 

 the name by which the ancients called it. 



The Garden Endive (Cichorium endivia) is a nearly allied plant, and 

 some writers think it merely a variety of the common Succory. It is now 

 reared in large quantities by market gardeners, and forms a valuable addition 

 to spring salad. Mr. Curtis considered it a distinct species ; and it is to be 

 remarked, that while the common Succory has the same name throughout 

 Europe, this is known by a diff'erent one, most of the people of the Continent 

 calling it Endivie, Endivia, or Endibia, Avhile the French call it La Scarole. 

 Mr. Curtis says, "The Cichorium endivia, which is an annual or biennial, 

 grows wild in the corn-fields of Spain, together with the C. intyhus : it is 

 undoubtedly the parent of the cultivated Endive, but it is not so clear which 

 of the two is the plant so celebrated by Horace as constituting part of his 

 simple diet." 



We may occasionally see the star-like flowers of our AVild Succory of a 

 clear white hue, and it has been discovered that the blue colour of the petals 

 is changed into a beautiful red by the acid of ants. Mr. Miller, the engraver, 

 told Mr. Curtis that the boys in Germany often amused themselves in pro- 

 ducing this change of colour by placing the blossoms in an ant-hill. These 

 flowers were, it seems, formerly considered very beneficial to health, for 

 Parkinson tells us, " The bitterness therof causeth it to be more physicall 

 than the curled endive; therefore the flowers pickled up, as divers other 

 flowers are used to be now a dales, make a delicate sallet at all times when 

 there is occasion to use theni." This "pickling" the flowers appears to have 



