C 1 C 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C I C 



2D9 



about two inches asunder, and the earth drawn with a rake 

 into the drill to cover them. The drills should be made at 

 three feet distance from each other, that there may be room 

 for their branches to spread, when the plants are fully grown, 

 .L-, also to hoe the ground between them, to keep it clean 

 from weeds, which is all the culture these plants require. It 

 flowers in June, and the seeds ripen in August ; but unless 

 the season prove warm and dry, the plants decay in this 

 country before the seeds are ripe. 



Cichorium ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 i*)imia JEqualis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix -. common 

 calicled, cylindric ; scales eight, narrow-lanceolate, equal, 

 forming a cylinder, and five others incumbent and shorter. 

 'vrulla ; compound, flat, uniform; corollules hermaphrodite, 

 twenty in a ring; proper monopetalous, ligulate, truncate, 

 deeply five-toothed. Stamina: filamenta five, capillary, very 

 short ; antherae cylindric-pentagon, tubulous. Pistil ; ger- 

 men oblong; style filiform, the length of the stamina; stigmas 

 two, revolute. Pericarp.- none. Calix : cylindric, converg- 

 ing at top. Seeds: solitary, compressed, with sharp angles; 

 pappus obscurely hairy, slightly five-toothed. Recejitacle: 

 somewhat chaffy. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: calicled. 

 Pappus: slightly five-toothed, obscurely hairy. Receptacle: 



somewhat chaffy. The species are, 



1. Cichorium Intybus ; Garden and Wild Succory. Flow- 

 ers twin, sessile ; leaves runcinate. Root perennial, yellow 

 on the outside, tapering, branched, the thickness of the fin- 

 ger, from a span to a foot in length, milky ; stem from one 

 to three feet in height, upright, rigid, crooked, angular, 

 roughish to the touch, and generally very much branched, 

 leaves radical, numerous, roughish; flowers generally in pairs, 

 sessile in the bosom of the upper leaves; florets of a fine blue, 

 frequently white, and sometimes red ; tube white, dilated, and 

 hairy at top; border ribbed on the under side, and villose ; 

 antherae deep blue. The fine blue colour of the florets is 

 convertible into a brilliant red by the acid of ants. The 

 flowers open at eight, and close at four. It is common in the 

 borders of corn-fields, flowering from July to September, and 

 increasing itself much by seed. This plant has generally been 

 considered as a noxious weed, although for several years past 

 the French have cultivated it as food for cattle. Arthur Young, 

 Esq. introduced it into England for the same purposein 17S8, 

 and has since cultivated it to a considerable extent with great 

 success. In Lombardy it is sown mixed with other herbs of 

 pasture, and cut three or four feet high; it is there reputed 

 to increase both the milk and flesh of cattle, and to be very 

 nutritious when made into hay : horses eat it greedily, and it 

 is an important object for summer soiling both for them and 

 cattle ; sheep also eat it freely. It defies drought, being of 

 early growth, and the first large and spreading leaves cover- 

 ing the ground so as to retain the moisture : the thick stiff 

 stalks will support themselves against winds and the heaviest 

 ruins, nor does the severest cold at all injure it. Its quick 

 growth increases its value, because it furnishes abundance of 

 salutary fodder, at the season when green food is scarce. It 

 has been known to grow seven inches in three weeks, whilst 

 Saintfoin and Burnetgrew only four inches ; two cuttings may 

 be made of it in the first year, and three or four, according 

 to the season, every year after, in April, June, August, and 

 October, or in May, July, and October, never letting it stand 

 till it becomes hard and sticky ; or it may be cut continually, 

 by beginning again when the whole piece is gone over, and 

 thus yield a constant supply of fresh food during seven or 

 eight months. The produce is said to be superior, on the 

 whole, to that of Lucerne, in the proportion of three to one. 

 A piece of ground sown with Succory, was found to yield 



by the acre the year of sowing, at two cuttings, July the 24th 

 and October the 17th, nineteen tons four hundred-weight ; 

 second year, at three cuttings, May 21st, July 24th, and 

 December 3d, thirty-eight tons nine hundred-weight; and the 

 whole averag-; produce of four years was nearly thirty tons. 

 The quantity of seed produced on an acre has been, the first 

 year, a hundred and a half; the second, two hundred-weight; 

 and the third, from three hundred and a half, to four hundred - 

 weightand ahalf. Afterallowingforthe partialitywhichcom- 

 monly attends novelties, and notwithstanding this succulent 

 plant seldom dries well for hay in our climate, except in very 

 dry seasons, yet, as far as our experience has hitherto gone, it 

 must ba conceded that Succory seems to be a valuable object 

 of culture, as fresh feed for horses, cows, and sheep. The 

 leaves, when blanched, are eaten early in the spring as salads ; 

 and the roots, gathered before the stems shoot up, are eat- 

 able, and when dried may be made into bread. The Ger- 

 mans dry and pulverize them to mix with their coffee, to two 

 parts of which they add one of Succory roots, which is said 

 to increase its strength and salubrity, as well as improve the 

 taste. Hill informs us, that an infusion of the root opens 

 obstructions, and is good against the jaundice. A decoction 

 of the whole plant, fresh gathered, works powerfully by urine, 

 is good for the gravel, and promotes the menses. Succory i-, 

 an useful detergent, aperient, and attenuating medicine, act- 

 ing without much irritation, tending rather to cool than heat 

 the body, and at the same time corroborating the tone of the 

 intestines : the juice, taken in large quantities, so as to keep 

 up a diarrhoea, and continued for some weeks, has been found 

 rather to produce excellent effects in scorbutic and other 

 chronical disorders. It is the common Succory, (or Cichorix, 

 as agriculturists affect to call it from the French name Chi- 

 corf'e,) or rather a highly improved variety of it, that is now 

 introduced into field culture with great advantage. The 

 proper quantity of seed to be sown upon an acre, either alone 

 or with spring corn, is twelve pounds; but if it be sown with 

 various other seeds, the quantity of Succory seed must be less, 

 in proportion to the quantity of such seeds. When sown with 

 Barley or Oats, with either of which it succeeds very well, it 

 must be sown of course at the usual time of sowing these 

 grains ; but alone it may be put into the ground with safety 

 at any time between March and September. It should not 

 be mixed with Clover, unless the latter be expected to fail. 

 Chicory does not stool, tiller, or thicken on the ground : it 

 flourishes best where it has most room and air; it should seem 

 therefore that the drill husbandry would be most suitable to 

 it: thus cultivated, after the first year it may be mown four 

 times a year. If sown for seed only, it should be drilled 

 alone, or at least drilled across corn before it be up ; but it 

 is better sown by itself. 



2. Cichorium Endivia; Broad-leaved Succory, or Common 

 Endive. Flowers solitary, peduncled ; leaves entire, crenate. 

 Stem herbaceous, annual, two feet high, upright, round, thick 

 branched ; root-leaves many, large, subcuneiform, sinuate- 

 toothed, smooth on both sides ; the uppermost lanceolate, 

 small; flowers pale blue, solitary, peduncled. Native of 

 China and Japan. There is a variety with curled fei:t-s, 

 which is almost exclusively cultivated in the south of England, 

 as an early salad; but no kind of Endive is much cultivated 

 in the north. The first season for sowing is in May, for those 

 which are sown earlier generally run up to seed before they 

 have arrived at a proper size for blanching, and it frequently 

 happens that the seeds sown in May in the rich grounds near 

 London, will run to seed the same autumn, but this seldom 

 happens in colder situations, therefore there should be some 

 sown about the middle or end of the month. The next 



