C Y N 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C Y N 



417 



lose, length of the corollule, live toothed. Pistil : germen 

 somewhat ovate ; style filiform, longer than the stamina ; 

 jtigma simple, oblong emurginate. Pericarp: none; calix 

 converging but a little. Seeds : solitary, oblong-ovate, four- 

 cornered, compressed; down sessile, long; receptacle bristly. 

 KbM.vrm. CHARACTER. Calix : dilated, imbricate, with 

 til-shy scales, emarginate, with an acumen. The species are, 

 1. Cynara Scolymus ; Common Artichoke. Leaves some- 

 what spiny, pinnate, and undivided ; calicine scales ovate. 

 In its wild state, the Artichoke is said to attain the height of 

 ^ man, but the cultivated Artichoke seldom exceeds four feet 

 in height, with a stout, furrowed, leafy stem, slightly tomen- 

 tose, sometimes a little branched at top. The root is large, 

 thick, and perennial; root-leaves two to four feet long, petio- 

 Usd, irregularly pinnatifid, deeply cut, more or less spinous ; 

 n-leaves simple, serrated or jagged ; flowers terminating 

 the stem and branches, on thick fleshy peduncles; heads sub- 

 globular, green or dark purple. Mr. Miller divides the Arti- 

 choke into two species. 1 . The Green or French, and 2. the 

 Globe Artichoke. The former, being the sort most commonly 

 cultivated in France, is generally known here by the title of 

 French Artichoke, and is the only sort in Guernsey and Jersey. 

 Its heads are of a green colour, like those of the Globe Arti- 

 choke, but the bottoms are not near so thick of Hesh ; and 

 they havea perfumed taste, which to many persons isvery dis- 

 agreeable, so that it is seldom cultivated in the gardens near 

 I.iindon, where the Globe or Red Artichoke is the only sort in 

 c-teem. The Artichoke is a native of the south of Europe, 

 i Italy, Sicily, and the south of France. In some parts 

 it is eaten raw in its wild state, by the common people, and 

 must certainly be a most wretched food. It is said to dye a 

 good yellow ; and the flowers are used instead of rennet, to 

 turn milk for cheese. The whole plant has a peculiar smell, 

 and a strong bitter taste. It was formerly in great repute for 

 qualities which it is not now allowed to possess. It is re- 

 puted to be aperient, stomachic, and somewhat heating. 

 According to Meyrick, the juice of the leaves, or a strong 

 decoction of the roots, is powerfully diuretic, and of great 

 eiiici'.cy in the jaundice and dropsy, which will frequently 

 yield to this medicine. Hill also observes, that the root 

 fresh gathered, sliced, and boiled in water in the propor- 

 tion of six ounces to a quart, makes a decoction which works 

 by urine, and which he has known to cure the jaundice alone. 

 Tue Artichoke has the same name, with very little variation, 

 in all the European languages. The Germans call it artis- 

 i-lwke, corruptly erdschocke ; the Dutch, artiyok or artichok : 

 the Danes, <erteskok ; the Swedes, tertskocka ; the French, 

 artichaut ; the Italians, careiofo ; the Spanish and Portuguese, 

 alcachofa ; the Poles, karciof; and the Russians, artitschuk. 

 Propagation and Culture. The way of propagating the 

 common Artichoke is, from slips or suckers taken from the old 

 roots in February or March, or rather some time in Mi-.rch 

 or the beginning of April, which if planted in a good soil, 

 will produce large fair heads in the autumn following. To 

 make anew plantation, dig and bury some very rotten dung 

 in the ground set apart for that purpose. Choose such plants 

 as are taken from clear, sound, but not woody old stocks. 

 Cut off with your knife the knobbed woody part that joined 

 them to the stock ; if that cuts crisp and tender, it is good, but 

 if tough and stringy, through it away as useless. Cut off also 

 the large outside leaves pretty low, that the middle or heart- 

 leaves may be above them. If the weather be very dry, or 

 the plants have been any time taken from the stocks, it will 

 be expedient to set them upright in a tub of water, three or 

 four hours before they are planted, which will greatly refresh 

 them. To plant them, range a line across the ground, nod 

 TOL. t. 35. 



with a measure-stick place them at two feet distance from 

 each other in the rows ; and if designed for a full crop, five 

 feet distance row from row. The plants must be set about 

 four inches deep, and the earth closed very fast to their 

 roots, observing, if the season prove dry, to water them two 

 or three times a week until they are growing ; after which 

 they seldom require any. A thin crop of Spinach may be 

 sown upon the ground before the Artichokes are planted, ob- 

 serving to clear it from about them after it appears. But 

 whenever it is intended to plant any thing between the Arti- 

 chokes, nine or ten feet must be allowed between the rows, 

 which is the space left by the kitchen-gardeners near Lon- 

 don, who sow the ground between with Radishes or Spinach, 

 and plant two rows of Cauliflowers at four feet distance, from 

 row to row, and two feet and a half asunder in the rows, so 

 that there are always five feet allowed for the Artichokes to 

 grow ; and in May, when the Radishes and Spinach are taken 

 off, they sow a row of Cucumbers for pickling, exactly be- 

 tween the two rows of Cauliflowers, at three feet distance from 

 each other ; and between the rows of Cauliflowers and the 

 Artichokes, plant a row of Cabbages or Savoys for winter use, 

 which, when the Cauliflowers are drawn off and the Arti- 

 chokes gathered, will have full liberty to grow ; and by this 

 means the ground is fully employed throughout the whole 

 season. This has long been the practice of the kitchen-gar- 

 deners near London, who pay large rents for their land, and 

 are obliged to get as many crops in a year from it as possible. 

 In those which are planted at five feet distance from row to 

 row, a line of Cabbages or Savoys- may be planted for winter 

 use in every other row, which will be gone by the time of 

 landing them up ; in doing this, you must lay the whole five 

 feet 'of earth into one ridge, except the ground be extremely 

 stiff, or the plants young, in both which cases you may lay 

 only three feet and a half of the ground in the ridge over 

 the roots, and the remainder may be laid in a small ridge be- 

 tween : the same compass of ground must also be allowed, 

 where they are planted at a wider distance. If in the spring 

 you find your stocks shoot very weak, which may be occa- 

 sioned either by hard frost or too much wet, you must then 

 cover them, and loosen and break the earth about them, 

 raising a small hill round each stock ; levelling the rest be- 

 tween the rows, which will greatly assist them, and in three 

 weeks or a month after, they are commonly fit to slip. If 

 any of the plants which are set in the spring should not fruit 

 in autumn, you may, at the season of earthing up the roots, 

 tie up the leaves with a small willow twig, and lay up the 

 earth close to it, so that the top of the plant may be above 

 ground ; and when the frost come on, Lf you will cover the 

 top with a little straw or pease-haulm, to prevent their being 

 killed by the frost, these plants will produce fruit in winter, 

 or early in the spring. If you intend to continue your Arti- 

 chokes through a whole season, you must make a new planta- 

 tion every year, otherwise you cannot possibly have fruit 

 longer than two or three months. Those Artichokes which 

 are planted in a moist rich soil, will always produce the 

 largest and best fruit, especially in kindly seasons ; so that 

 where such a soil can be obtained, it will be advisable to 

 make a fresh plantation every spring, to succeed the old 

 stocks, and supply the table in autumn. But the roots will 

 not live through the winter in a moist soil, so that the stock* 

 which are intended to remain to supply the table early, and 

 to furnish plants, should be in a drier soil, and ought always 

 to be planted in an open situation, not under the drip of 

 trees, where they will draw up very tall, and produce small 

 insignificant fruit. Winter Dressing and Landing. Since) we 

 have experienced, that in very severe frosts these roots are 

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