OF SUNDRY HERBS 33 



taste of them, they very often resort in great number from 

 far places to the marvellous spoil of the roots." Moles also, 

 it seems, are deadly enemies, and to keep them away you 

 must either " bring uppe and learne a young Catte, or tame 

 a weesell to hunt daily in those places." According to the 

 Neapolitan Rutilius, if the seeds are sown the wrong way 

 down the artichokes will grow crooked, weak and very 

 small. If you desire to grow the heads without prickles 

 you are instructed either to break the sharp ends of the 

 seeds or else to put each seed in a lettuce root with the rind 

 pared off before planting it. To ensure a pleasant flavour 

 the seeds must be soaked in rose or lily water, or the juice 

 of bay leaves mixed with sweet almonds, or new milk and 

 honey, or aromatised wine, and in whatever pleasant liquor 

 the seeds have been steeped the artichokes when ripe will 

 have the flavour of it. Formerly, even the leaves were 

 considered a delicacy, and they were carefully blanched in 

 the late summer. Our English artichokes were so highly 

 esteemed in Tudor days that the plants were exported to 

 Italy, France, and the Low Countries. 



PRESERVING OF ARTICHOKES. Cut off the Stalkes of 

 your Artichokes within two inches of the Apple ; and of all 

 the rest of the Stalkes make a strong decoction, slicing them 

 into thinne and small peeces, and keepe them in this decoc- 

 tion : You must lay them first in warme water, and then 

 in colde, to take away the bitternesse of them. This of 

 Mr. Parsons, that honest and painefull Practicer in his 

 profession. 



In a mild and warme winter, about a month or three 

 weeks before Christmas, I caused great store of Artichokes 

 to be gathered with their stalls in their full length as they 

 grew : and, making first a good thick Lay of Artichoke 

 leaves in the bottome of a great and large vessel, I placed 

 my Artichokes one upon another, as clp.se as I could couch 

 them, covering them over, of a pretty thicknesse with 

 Artichoke leaves : those Ai , lies* ^were served at my 

 Table all the Lent after, th ^ ueing red and sound, 



