670 ASPARAGACEOTJS ESCULENTS. 



1493. To save seed. Leave the blossoms on a few of the strongest plants, 

 the seed produced by which will ripen in August, and the stalks may be 

 collected and thrashed like those of the common cabbage. The seeds will 

 retain their vitality for four or five years. 



1494. Forcing. Where a crop is to be forced in the open ground, the 

 ordinary mode is to cover the plants in autumn with sea-kale pots (fig. 58, 

 in p. 143), or with large garden pots, and to cover these and the whole 

 surface of the ground with hot dung, or a mixture of hot dung and leaves. 

 When this is done in October, kale may be gathered in November or 

 December; and by successive applications of heat to other parts of the 

 plantation, a supply may be obtained till it can be procured from the plants 

 covered with soil, or leaves only. Other modes of forcing have been already 



noticed (1097). 



SUBSECT. III. The Artichoke. 



1495. The artichoke, Cynara Scolymus L. (Artichaut, Fr.), is a cardu- 

 aceous perennial, a native of the South of Europe and North of Africa, in 

 cultivation in British gardens from the middle of the sixteenth century. 

 The plant is cultivated for the head of flowers, which is gathered before 

 their expansion ; and the common receptacle, and the base of the involucral 

 scales, are the parts eaten. These are boiled, sometimes fried in butter, and 

 they are occasionally eaten raw in salads. The receptacles, or bottoms, as 

 they are commonly called, after being blanched in boiling water, are some- 

 times dried and preserved for use during winter and spring. In the North 

 of Spain the lesser flower-heads are cut soon after they appear, and 

 the pith ( ? bottoms) is extracted, and forms a palatable ingredient in the 

 puchera or olla, a favourite Spanish dish. Artichoke bottoms are also com- 

 bined with capsicum in a sort of stew made of fowl. (Captain Churchill, 

 in Gard. Chron., 1842, p. 284.) The first heads are ready in July, and by 

 continuing to gather them before allowing any to expand their flowers, they 

 will continue being produced till November ; and by cutting off the heads 

 at that season, with a foot or more of stalk attached, and inserting the stalks in 

 moist sand, in an open shed secured from frost, they will keep fit for use till 

 January or longer. The leaves of the artichoke may also be blanched like 

 those of the cardoon. The varieties are, the Globe, with a globular purplish 

 head, which is the best variety for a main crop ; the French, with an oval 

 green head, considered as having more flavour than the other, and being 

 hardier. Both sorts are propagated by rooted suckers taken from the old 

 plants in March and April, and planted in rows four feet asunder, and two 

 feet distant in the row. The soil ought to be deep, sandy, and rich, and sea- 

 weed is said to be an excellent ingredient in the manure for this plant, being 

 the manure used in the Orkney islands, where the artichoke grows stronger 

 than anywhere else. The routine culture consists in keeping the plants 

 clear of weeds, thinning out the shoots produced by the stools, stirring the 

 soil, manuring once a year, in autumn or spring, and laying litter round the 

 plants in autumn to protect the roots from frost during the winter. The 

 plants will produce some heads the first year, and all that they produce may 

 be gathered as soon as they attain the proper size, as the strength of the 

 root depends on the leaves, and not on the flowers. The plantation will 

 continue productive for six or seven years, or longer. In gathering, the 

 heads are cut off within an inch or two of the stalk attached, and half-a- 

 dozen heads are considered as making a dish. 



