ARTICHOKE CAItDOON. 399 



drought well. In the very dry summer of 1826, it is said to 

 have been the only vegetable procurable in the neighbourhood 

 of Paris for several weeks. Once in the seventeenth century, 

 and again in 1739, nearly all the artichokes in Britain were de- 

 stroyed by frost, and had to be replaced from France. Several 

 varieties are in cultivation. The parts used are the lower portion 

 of the leaves of the calyx, the fleshy receptacle of the florets, 

 freed from bristles and seed-down, vulgarly called the choke, 

 and sometimes the tender central leaf-stalk, in a blanched state 

 like the cardoon. Gynara cardunculus, the cardoon. It also 

 is a native of the south of Europe. The edible part or chard 

 is composed of the blanched and crisp stalks of the inner 

 leaves. Besides the common sort, there is the Spanish cardoon 

 and the cardoon of Tours, a prickly variety, much used on the 

 Continent. Cnicus is termed generally the horse - thistle. 

 Cnicus arvensis is the chief of the troublesome weeds known 

 as thistles. 0. palustris is a native species, the tender stalks 

 of which, as of most species, being peeled, are eatable either raw 

 or boiled. G. oleraceus, which is not a native of this country, is 

 not eaten by cattle, but the Eussians are said to boil the leaves 

 in spring, and eat them as coleworts. The tender stalks of G. 

 cernuus are used in Siberia. The G. canus, a native of Aus- 

 tria, has fleshy white roots like the skirret, and may be 

 dressed and eaten in the same manner. The following passage 

 occurs in Loudon : " Some English botanists seem doubtful 

 if horses and cows will eat the common corn or way horse- 

 thistle (Cnicus arvensis) ; but those who know anything of 

 the history of agriculture in Scotland will recollect that, before 

 the introduction of naked fallows and turnips, it formed the 

 suppering of housed cattle during five or six weeks of every 

 summer." The ass, as every one is aware, knows no better 

 food than thistles. To the genera Onopordum and Garlina 

 similar observations apply. 



