94j origin of cultivated plants. 



It is believed that the hactos, Iclnara, and scolimos of 

 the Greeks, and the cardicus of Roman horticulturists, 

 were Cynara cardunculics,^ although the most detailed 

 description, that of Theophrastus, is suffici(uitly confused. 

 "The plant," he said, "grows in Sicily " — as it does to this 

 day — "and," he added, "not in Greece." It is, therefore, 

 possible that the plants observed in our day in that 

 country may have been naturalized from cultivation. 

 According to Athengeus,^ the Egyptian king Ptolemy 

 Energetes, of the second century before Christ, had found 

 in Libya a great quantity of wild kuiara, by which his 

 soldiers had profited. 



Although the indigenous species was to be found at 

 such a little distance, I am very doubtful whether the 

 ancient Egyptians cultivated the cardoon or the artichoke. 

 Pickering and Unger ^ believed they recognized it in some 

 of the drawings on the monuments ; but the two figures 

 which Uniier considers the most admis-^ible seem to me 

 extremely doubtful. Moreover, no Hebrew name is known, 

 and the Jews would probably have spoken of this vege- 

 table had they seen it in Egypt. The diffusion of the 

 species in Asia must have taken place somewhat late. 

 There is an Arab name, Idrschuff or kersckouf, and a 

 Persian name, kungJdr,'^ but no Sanskrit name, and the 

 Hindus have taken the Persian word kiinjir,^ which 

 shows that it was introduced at a late epoch. Chinese 

 authors do not mention any Cynara.^ The cultivation 

 of the artichoke was only introduced into England in 

 1548.'^ One of the most curious facts in the history of 

 Cynara cardiuiculus is its naturalization in the present 

 century over a vast extent of the Pampas of Buenos 

 Ay res, where its abundance is a hindrance to travellers.^ 



* Theophrastns, Hist., 1. 6, c. 4; Pliny, Hist., \. 19, c. 8; Lenz, 

 Bot. der Alten Griechen and Romer, p. 4S0. 



* Athenaeus, Deipn., ii. 84. 



' Pickering, Chron. Arrangement, p. 71 ; Uugor, PJlanzen der Alten 

 .^(jyptens, p. 40, figs. 27 and 28. 



* Ainslie, Mat. Med. Ind., i. p. 22. * Pirldington, Index. 

 ^ BretscUneidcr, Study, etc, and Letters of 1881. 



^ Phillips, Companion to the Kitchen Garden, p. 22. 



* Aug.de Saint Hilary, Planfes Jlemarkables du Bresil, liitrod., p. 58; 

 Darwin, Aiiimals and Plants under Domestication, ii. p. 34. 



