122 



THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 



ENDIVE (Chicorium Endivia) is the French Chicory, 

 a salad plant not as yet properly appreciated in America, 

 for it can be made to follow lettuce in the hot months, 

 and thus to give salads when most other salad plants 

 are at their worst. Endive matures more slowly than 

 lettuce, requiring about seven weeks. To be at its best 

 it should be blanched, for otherwise it is bitter and 

 slightly tough when full grown. Picked young for 

 either salads or boiled greens, it will not require blanch- 

 ing. Endive is hardy to frost, and may be sown quite 

 as early as lettuce outdoors, or may be started under 

 glass and set out when the ground is fit. For late fall 



Fig. 61. Seedlings of Endive. Two-thirds natural size. 



use, Endive is often transplanted into frames ; or for 

 winter use it is taken indoors and slowly blanched in 

 storage. Varieties are of two types, the curled and 

 the broad-leaved; the curled are more tender. Vilmorin- 

 Andrieux gives thirteen of the curled and seven of the 



