STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 227 



Vilmorin ' describes five varieties : the Cardon de Tours, the Cardon plein inerme, 

 the Cardon d'Espagne, the Cardon Puvis, and the Cardon d cotes rouges. 



The first of these, the Cardon de Tours, is very spiny and we may reasonably believe 

 it tc be the sort figured by Matthiolus,^ 1598, under the name of Carduus aculeatus. It 

 is named in French works on gardening in 1824, 1826 and 1829.^ Its English name is 

 Prickly-Solid cardoon; in Spain it is called Cardo espinoso. It holds first place in the 

 estimation of the market gardeners of Tours and Paris. 



The Cfjfdon plein inerme is scarcely spiny, is a little larger than the preceding but 

 otherwise closely resembles 'it. J. Bauhin * had never seen spineless cardoons. It is 

 spoken of in 1824 in French books on gardening. It is called, in England, Smooth-Solid 

 cardoon and has also names in Germany, Italy and Spain. 



The Cardon d'Espagne is very large and not spiny and is principally grown in the 

 southern portions of Europe. We may resonably speculate that this is the sort named by 

 Pliny as coming from Cordoba. Cardons d'Espagne have their cultivation described in 

 Le Jardinier Solitaire, 161 2. A " Spanish cardoon " is described by Townsend ' in England, 

 1726, and the same name is used by McMahon * in America, 1806. This is the Cynara 

 integrifolia of Vahl. 



The Cardon Puvis, or Artichoke-leaved, is spineless and is grown largely in the 

 vicinity of Lyons, France. It finds mention in the French books on gardening of 1824 

 and 1829, as previously enumerated. 



The Cardon d cotes rouges, or Red-stemmed, is so named from having the ribs tinged 

 with red. It is called a recent sort by Burr in 1863. 



From a botanical point of view we have two types in these plants, the armed and the 

 tmarmed; but these characters are by no means to be considered as very constant, as in 

 the Smooth-Solid we have an intermediate form. From an olerictiltural point of view, 

 we have but one type throughout but a greater or less perfection. A better acquaintance 

 with the wild forms would, doubtless, show to us the prototypes of the variety differences 

 as existing in nature. 



Artichoke. 



The artichoke is a cultivated form of cardoon. To the ancient Romans, it was known 

 only in the shape of cardoon. It seems quite certain that there is no description in 

 Dioscorides and Theophrastus, among the Greeks, nor in Colvmiella, Palladius and Pliny, 

 among the Romans, but that can with better grace be referred to the cardoon than to 

 the artichoke. To the writers of the sixteenth century, the artichoke and its uses were 

 well known. Le Jardinier Solitaire, an anonymous work published in 161 2, recommends 

 three varieties for the garden. In Italy, the first record of the artichoke cultivated for 

 the receptacle of the flowers was at Naples, in the beginning or middle of the fifteenth 



' Vilmorin, Les Pis. Potag. 59, 60. 1883. 

 ' Matthiolus 0/>era 496. 1598. 

 ' PiroUe L'Hort, Franc. 1824. 

 'Bauhin, J. Hist. PI. 50. 1651. 

 ' Townsend Seedsman 29. 1726. 

 McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Cat. 581. 1806. 



