sturtevant's notes on edible plants 91 



Chard. 



Chard was the beta of the ancients and of the Middle Ages. Red chard was noticed 

 by Aristotle 1 about 350 B. C. Theophrastus ^ knew two kinds the white, called 

 Sicula, and the 'black (or dark green), the most esteemed. Dioscorides' also records 

 two kinds. Eudemus, quoted by Athenaeus,* in the second century, names four; the 

 sessile, the white, the common and the dark, or swarthy. Among the Romans, chard 

 finds frequent mention, as by Colimiella,* Pliny,* Palladius' and Apicius.' In China 

 is was noticed in writings of the seventh, eighth, fourteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries;' in Europe, by all the ancient herbalists. 



Chard has no Sanscrit name. The ancient Greeks called the species teutlion; the 

 Romans, beta; the Arabs, selg; the Nabateans, silq.^" Albertus Magnus," in the thir- 

 teenth century, uses the word acelga, the present name in Portugal and Spain. 



The wild form is found in the Canary Isles, the whole of the Mediterranean region 

 as far as the Caspian, Persia and Babylon, perhaps even in western India, as also about 

 the sea-coasts of Britain.*^ It has been sparingly introduced into kitchen-gardens for 

 use as a chard." The red, white, and yellow forms are named from quite early times; 

 the red by Aristotle, the white and dark green by Theophrastus and Disocorides. In 

 1596, Bauhin " describes dark, red, white, yellow, chards with a broad stalk and the sea- 

 beet. These forms, while the types can be recognized, yet have changed their appear- 

 ance in our cultivated plants, a greater compactness and development being noted as 

 arising from the selection and cultivation which has been so generally accorded in recent 

 times. Among the varieties Vilmorin describes are the White, Swiss, Silver, Curled Swiss, 



and Chilian. 



Sea Beet. 



The leaves of the sea beet form an excellent chard and in Ireland are collected from 



the wild plant and used for food;'Mn England the plant is sometimes cultivated in 



gardens." This form has been ennobled by careful culture, continued tmtil a mangold 



was obtained." 



Scaliger Aristotle 69. 1566. 



Theophrastus Hist. PI. Bodaeus Ed. 778. 1644. 

 Matthiolus Comment. 248. 1558. 

 Turre Dryadum 442. 1685. 

 Columella lib. 10, c. 251; Hb. 11, c. 3, etc. 



Pliny lib. 19, c. 40. 



' Palladius lib. 3, c. 24. 



Apicius Opson. lib. 3, c. 2, p. 2. 



Bretschneider, E. Bot. Sin. 53, 59, 79, 83. 1882. 

 De CandoUe, A. Orig. Pis. Cult. 58. 1885. 



" Albertus Magnus Veg. Jessen Ed. 78. 1867. 



" Morton Cyc. Agr. 1:234. 1869. 



" Targioni-Tozzetti Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. 147. 1854. 



" Bauhin, C. Phytopinax 190. 1596. 



Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. 215. 1862. 



" Morton Cyc. Agr. 1:234. 1869. 



" Agr. Gazette 218. 1879. 



