ARTICHOKE (Cynara Scolymus, L.). Flower heads very 

 large, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, of disk florets only which are 

 bright blue, borne at the tip of loosely clustered branchlets; 

 involucral bracts broad, leathery, and tipped usually with 

 a long spine. Leaves ample, 2 to 3 feet long, deeply lobed 

 (the lobes sharply toothed), and silvery green with a hoary 

 woolliness. Robust herbs, 2 to 4 feet high, from perennial 

 roots, occasional by roadsides in California, blooming in June 

 or July. 



This regal plant, whose flowers suggest a glorified blue thistle, 

 is a native of the Mediterranean region, and is extensively cul- 

 tivated as a vegetable in some parts of California the in- 

 volucral bracts being eaten. Its seeds, like the thistle's, 

 supplied with generous plumes, are borne by the winds consid- 

 erable distances. In this way the plant has escaped from gar- 

 dens, and set up for tself in the open. 



There is a native American plant also known as Artichoke, 

 but of quite a different aspect from this Cynara. It is 

 Helianthus tuberosus, L., a sunflower of the Middle West. 

 Its tubers are the edible part. 



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