282 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



at greater perfection than in the Orkney Islands, and 

 this successful culture is said to be consequent on the 

 plentiful supply of sea-weed, with which the ground 

 is annually dressed. 



Beckmann made very laborious researches to as- 

 certain the positive antiquity of the artichoke. 

 These discussions are, however, more curious than 

 interesting. A commentator of Dioscorides, Hermo- 

 laus Barbarus, who died in 1494, relates that this 

 vegetable was first seen in the Venice garden in 1473, 

 at which time it was very scarce. A few years pre- 

 vious to that time it was, however, an object of cul- 

 tivation in other parts of Italy. It was introduced 

 into France at the beginning of the sixteenth century, 

 and not many years afterwards, during the reign of 

 Henry VIII, was first transplanted into our gardens. 

 In the Privy-Purse expenses of this king we find 

 several entries regarding artichokes. Thus: ' Paied 

 to a servant of maister Tresorer in rewarde for 

 bringing Archecokks to the king's grace to Yorke 

 place, iiijs. iiijd.' A treatise, written in the reign of 

 Mary, on ' the best seltynge and keepynge of arti- 

 chokes,' is still preserved in the Harleian library, of 

 which it forms the 645th number. Though in very 

 common culture in this country this plant is not held 

 in as much estimation here as on the Continent. 



The artichoke has large thick perennial roots and 

 annual stems, rising to three feet or more in height. 

 The leaves are large and pinnatified, or cut in deep, 

 horizontal, convex segments; these are covered with 

 an ash-coloured down. In the midst of them rise the 

 upright stalks, which are surmounted by large, scaly 

 heads, composed of an involucrum, having numerous 

 oval leaves or scales, enclosing the florets, and placed 

 on a broad, fleshy receptacle; this, and the lower 

 part or talus of the scales, are the only edible por- 

 tions of the plant used in the early stage of their 



