44 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



Botanical analogies and the testimony of con- 

 temporaries agree, as we have seen, in considering tiiis 

 plant to be a native of the north-east of America. Dr. 

 Asa Gray, seeing that it is not found v/ild, had formerly 

 supposed it to be a variety of ^. dor onicoides of Jj2im.a,rck, 

 but he has since abandoned this idea {A')nerican Journal 

 of Science, 1883, p. 224). An author gives it as wild in 

 the State of Indiana.^ The French name topinainhovbr 

 comes apparently from some real or supposed Indian 

 name. The Eno-lish name Jerusalem artichoke is a cor- 

 ruption of the Italian girasole, sunflower, combined with 

 an allusion to the artichoke flavour of the root. 



Salsify — Tragopogon ijorrifolhiin, LinnoBus. 



The salsify was more cultivated a century or two ago 

 than it is now. It is a biennial composite, found wild 

 in Greece, Dalmatia, Italy, and even in Algeria.^ It 

 frequently escapes from gardens in the w^est of Europe, 

 and becomes half-naturalized.^ 



Commentators* give the name Tragopogon (goat's 

 beard) of Theophrastus sometimes to the modern species, 

 sometimes to Tragopogon croci folium, which also grows 

 in Greece. It is difficult to know if the ancients culti- 

 vated the salsify or gathered it wild in the country. In 

 the sixteenth century Olivier de Serres says it was a 

 new culture in his country, the south of France. Our 

 word Salsijis comes from the Italian Sassefrica, that 

 which rubs stones, a senseless term. 



Scorzonera — Scovzonera Idspanica, Linn?eus. 



This plant is sometimes called the Spanish salsify, 

 from its resemblance to Tragopogon porrifolium ; but 

 its root has a brown skin, whence its botanical name, 

 and the popular name ecorce noire in some French 

 provinces. 



It is wild in Europe, from Spain, where it abounds, the 



* Catalngne of Indiana Plants, 18S1, p. 15. 



' Boissier, Ft. Orient., iii. p. 7-15; Viv-iani, Fl. Dalmat., ii. p. 108; 

 Bertoloni, Fl. Ital., viii. p. 348 ; Gussone, Symipsis FL Siculce, ii. p. 384; 

 Munby, Catal. Alger., edit. 2, p. 22. 



' A. do Candolle, Geogr. Bot. Raifonnee, p. 671. 



* Fraas, Synopsis Fl. C/a-ss., p. 190 j Leuz, Bot. der Alten, p. 485. 



