178 JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 



centre, and bend their stalks in such a way as to 

 catch any object for support. The pods are used 

 for pickles; the leaves and flowers for salad; and 

 the seed is gathered ripe in September. Manure 

 added to the soil increases the growth, but lessens 

 the beauty and fruitfulness of this plant. 



Jerusalem Artichoke. There are few corruptions 

 more dishonourable to our language than the name 

 of this plant. Artichoke, from the resemblance of 

 flavour, is all well; but what has Jerusalem to do 

 in the matter? The plant is a species of sunflower 

 (Helianthus tuberosus) and therefore the Italians 

 have properly called it girasole; and we having 

 learned their name, of which they pronounce all the 

 four syllables, making the g soft, have innocently 

 thought they were speaking of Jeruselem. This 

 plant flowers occasionally in our climate, but never 

 ripens its seed; it grows eight or ten feet high, and 

 yields a good crop of tubers, buried in a mass of 

 small fibres, at the foot of each stalk. It is an excel- 

 lent vegetable, and in a place of moderate shelter is 

 as easily produced as potatoes. The cutting of the 

 sets, the mode of planting, manuring, and hoeing, 

 differ in nothing worthy of notice from the respect- 

 tive operations of potato culture. Some complain 

 of the difficulty of getting the ground cleared of the 

 roots, and, sloven like, resign a portion of the gar- 

 den to be overrun with the tubers year after year, 

 and thus gather what they can, of the worst quality, 

 from the confusion of chance growth and the just 

 sterility of lazy cultivation The potato, long 



