VEGETABLES AND HERBS. 



We now treat of the things cultivated in the garden 

 to be eaten at our tables as food ; and they are vegeta- 

 bles. Herbs are usually placed as a class separate from 

 vegetables ; but while some of them are merely medi- 

 cinal, like pennyroyal, others are used not only in medi- 

 cine and soups, but also eaten in salads. Therefore, it 

 appeared to be best to bring into this one alphabetical 

 list, plants usually grown in a garden, except such as 

 come under the heads of fruits and flowers. 



ARTICHOKE. 



A plant little cultivated in America, but very well 

 worthy of cultivation. In its look it very much resem- 

 bles a thistle of the big-blossomed kind. It sends up a 

 seed stalk, and it blows, exactly like the thistle. It is, 

 indeed, a thistle upon a gigantic scale. The parts that 

 are eaten, are the lower end of the thick leaves that en- 

 velope the seed, and the bottom out of which those 

 leaves immediately grow. The whole of the head, be- 

 fore 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 



