ARROW-ROOT. 



ARTICHOKE. 



[In England,] an indigenous, aquatic, perennial 

 herb, flowering in July or August. Root, 

 tuberous, nearly globular, with many long 

 fibres. It is industriously cultivated in China 

 for its esculent properties : its mealy nature 

 rendering it easily convertible into starch or 

 flour. It is much relished by most cattle. 

 Nothing is more variable than the breadth and 

 size of the floating leaves, which are dimi- 

 nished almost to nothing when deeply im- 

 mersed in the water, or exposed to a rapid 

 current. Hence has arisen the several varie- 

 ties mentioned by authors, but which the 

 slightest observation will discover to be eva- 

 nescent. This plant, especially the seed, was 

 formerly supposed to possess medicinal pro- 

 perties, which time and improved knowledge 

 have demonstrated to be imaginary. The 

 leaves, however, feel cooling when applied to 

 the skin ; hence they have been used and may 

 be serviceable as a dressing to inflamed sores. 

 (Eng. Flor. vol. iv. p. 144 ; Willich's Dom. 

 Encyc.') 



[ARROW-ROOT. This nutricious flour, 

 which constitutes a very mild, light, agreeable 

 and easily digested article of diet, so much 

 resorted to for the sick and convalescent, and 

 also for children, is the fecula or starch most 

 commonly obtained from the root of a plant 

 called Maranta arundinacea. It is a native of 

 South America, where, as well as in the West 

 Indies, it is extensively cultivated. It grows 

 also in Florida, in the southern parts of which 

 it is manufactured at the very low price of 6 

 to 8 cents per Ib. The low price at which 

 arrow-root is sold at Key West and other parts 

 of Florida, allows of its being used for the 

 common purposes of starch, and also for the 

 preparation of niceties for the table, being in 

 fact often substituted for the ordinary bread- 

 stuffs. Though thus cultivated in the south, 

 still most of that used is imported from the 

 West Indies and Brazil, the best coming from 

 Bermuda. The mode generally pursued in 

 the West Indies for obtaining the fecula from 

 the root and subsequently preparing it, is as 

 follows : The roots are dug up when a year 

 old, washed, and then beat into a pulp, which 

 is thrown into water, and agitated so as to 

 separate the starchy from the fibrous or stringy 

 portion. The fibres are removed by the hand, 

 and the starch remains suspended in the water, 

 to which it gives a milky colour. This milky 

 fluid is strained through coarse linen, and allow- 

 ed to stand that the fecula may subside, which 

 is afterwards washed with a fresh portion of 

 water and then dried in the sun. The powder 

 is a light white coloui, ometimes having 

 small masses easily crushed. It is a pure 

 starch like that obtained from wheat, potatoes, 

 and several other vegetable substances, espe- 

 cially the plant called in the West Indies 

 Jatropa Manihot, which yields the substance 

 called Tapioca, used for similar purposes with 

 arrow-root.] 



[ARROW-WOOD. A name given in the 

 U v ited States to a shrub (Viburnum} the 



and straight branches of which were, 

 according to Marshall, formerly used by the 

 aborgines for making arrows. The slender 

 stems, when the pith is removed, afford good 



112 



fuse-sticks for blasting rocks. Ten or twelve 

 species of Viburnum are enumerated in the 

 United States. (See Darlington's Flor. Cestrica.)] 



ARSENIC. See Poisox. 



ARTEMISIA. See WORMWOODS. 



ARTESIAN WELLS have been so named 

 from the opinion that they were first used in 

 Artois, in France. These wells have been 

 found extremely beneficial in the low lands of 

 Essex and Lincolnshire, and in some other 

 districts where good water is scarce, and that 

 of the surface of indifferent quality. Some 

 practical knowledge of geology is necessary in 

 order to fix with judgment upen the most 

 eligible spot for sinking these wells, or else 

 much labour and expense may be uselessly 

 applied. They are formed by boring with a 

 long auger arid rod to such a depth into the 

 earth, that a spring is found of sufficient power 

 to rise to and run over the surface. 



ARTICHOKE (Cynara}. From cinere, ac- 

 cording to Columella, because the land for 

 artichokes should be manured with ashes. 

 ["A plant little cultivated in America, but 

 very well worthy of cultivation. In its look 

 it very much resembles a thistle of the big- 

 blossomed kind. It sends up a seed stalk, 

 and it blows, exactly like the thistle that we 

 see in the Arms of Scotland. It is, indeed, a 

 thistle upon a gigantic scale. The parts that 

 are eaten are, the lower end of the thick leaves 

 that envelope the seed, and the bottom out of 

 which those leaves immediately grow. The 

 whole of the head, before the bloom begins to 

 appear, is boiled, the pod leaves are pulled off 

 by the eater, one or two at a time, and dipped 

 in butter, with a little pepper and salt, the 

 mealy part is stripped off by the teeth, and the 

 rest of the leaf put aside, as we do the stem of 

 asparagus. The bottom, when all the leaves 

 are thus disposed of, is eaten with knife and 

 fork. The French, who make salads of almost 

 every garden vegetable, and of not a few of the 

 plants of the field, eat the artichoke in salad. 

 They gather the heads, when not much bigger 

 round than a dollar, and eat the lower ends of 

 the leaves above mentioned raw, dipping them 

 first in oil, vinegar, salt and pepper ; and, in 

 this way, they are very good. Artichokes are 

 propagated from seed, or from offsets. If by 

 the former, sow the seed in rows a foot apart, 

 as soon as the frost is out of the ground. Thin 

 the plants to a foot apart in the row; and, in 

 the fall of the year, put out the plants in 

 clumps of four in rows, three feet apart, and 

 the rows six feet asunder. They will produce 

 their fruit the next year. When winter ap- 

 proaches, earth the roots well up ; and, before 

 the frost sets in, cover all well over with litter 

 from the yard or stable. Open at the breaking 

 up of the frost; dig all the ground well be- 

 tween the rows ; level the earth down from the 

 plants. You will find many young ones, or 

 offsets, growing out from the sides. Pull these 

 off, and, if you want a new plantation, put 

 them out, as you did the original plants. They 

 will bear, though later than the old ones, that 

 same year. As to sorts of this plant, there are 

 two, but they contain no difference of any con- 

 sequence: one has its head, or fruit pod, 

 round, and the other rather conical. As to the 



