JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 



283 



Rngular shape, and iiTegularly notched. Tlie 

 flowers are of a purple colour. There are seve- 

 ral varieties of the cultivated plant, depending 

 upon soil and climate. In tropical countries, of 

 which it is a native, the roots attain a consider- 

 able size, and sometimes fifty are found attached 

 to one plant. The roots, when roasted or boiled, 

 have a sweetish mucilaginous taste, more watery 

 and more insipid than the potato, but whole- 

 some and nourishing. It is of very easy culti- 

 vation, and verj' prolific ; all that is necessary is 

 to lay down the young shoots in spring, and 

 strew a little earth over them ; if this is followed 

 liy a shower of rain, they will immediately 

 spring up and grow luxuriantly. The roots also, 

 if planted, will readily throw out fresh shoots in 

 abundance. The batata is raised in hot-houses 

 in the Garden of Plants in Paris, and the young 

 plants then put into the open ground, where 

 they thrive well, and are productive in fiivour- 

 able seasons. Sir Francis Drake and Sir John 

 Hawkins introduced this plant into England in 

 the middle of the sixteenth century, bringing it 

 from Brazil, of which country it is a native; but 

 although attempts were made to naturalize it to 

 our climate, it was found too tender to endure 

 the cold of winter, except in hot-houses. Pre- 

 vious to the general use of the common potato, 

 considerable quantities of the batata were im- 

 ported into England from Spain and the Canary 

 islands; and this is the potato alluded to by 

 Shakespeare and other contemporary writers. Its 

 use is now gi-eatly superseded by its more hardy 

 and palatable rival. In tropical climates, how- 

 ever, it is still esteemed as a wholesome and 

 pleasant vegetable. In many parts of South 

 America, especially in Guiana, it forms a princi- 

 pal article of diet. The Indians, too, also pro- 

 duce from its fermented juice a kind of spiiit, of 

 which they are fond. The leaves are relished 

 by cattle, and prove to them a most nutritious 

 food. Cows fed on this foliage produce a larger 

 portion of milk, and of an improved quality. 



Jerusalem Artichoke (helianthus tuherosus). 

 This plant resembles the common sun-flower, to 

 which order it belongs. It is a herbaceous per- 

 ennial, growing to the height of three or four 

 feet. The tubers are oblong, and of the size of 

 a common potato. They have a sweetish fari- 

 naceous nature, somewhat akin to the common 

 potato, but contain less farina, and more saccha- 

 rine matter and water. This plant is a native of 

 Brazil, and was introduced into Europe about 

 tlie year IGl". It is cultivated in the same 

 way as the potato, by planting the small 

 tubers in February or March, in rows four feet 

 apart, and the sets eighteen inches from each 

 other in the rows. In order to have the roots 

 handsome, they should be taken up and trans- 

 planted into fresh ground every year, otherwise 

 they are apt to degenerate. 



Cassava (jatropha manihotj. A woody plant, 

 a native of Brazil, growing to the height of fivi> 



114. 



Cassava Plant. 



or six feet. Its root is woody 'and branched, 

 with a number of small fibres, which swell out 

 into small farinaceous masses, from which the 

 cassava flower is procured. The stalk is slender, 

 woody, and knotted. The leaves are smooth, 

 palmated, increasing in breadth to within an inch 

 and a half of the top, when they diminish to an 

 acute point. When it is considered that this 

 plant belongs to a highly poisonous tribe, and la 

 itself one of the most vinilent of the species, it 

 cannot but excite astonishment to find that it 

 yet yields an abundant flour, which by the art 

 of man becomes not only perfectly innocent, but 

 highly nutritious, yielding nourishment to many 

 thousands of the natives of South America, and 

 affbrding a luxury to the tables of more refined 

 Europeans. Sucli is the poisonous nature of the 

 juice of the mandioc, that it sometimes occasions 

 death in a few minutes ; and in this way many 

 of the unhappy Indians destroyed their Spanish 

 persecutors. A Surinam physician administered 

 it, by way of experiment, to dogs and cats, which 

 died after twenty-five minutes in dreadful agony. 

 Dissection proved that it operated by means of 

 the nervous system alone; an opinion confirmed 

 by thirty-six drops being afterwards given to a 

 criminal. These had scarcely reached the sto- 

 mach, when such torments and convulsions en- 

 sued, that the man expired in six minutes. 

 Three hours afterwards the body was opened, 

 when the stomach was found shrunk to half its 

 natm-al size, so that it would appear that the 

 poisonous principle resides in a volatile substance, 

 which may be dissipated by heat, as indeed is 

 satisfactorily proved by the mode of preparing 

 the root for food. 



When the climate is favourable, the plant is 

 of a hardy nature and of easy culture. It, how- 

 ever, requires the land to be of good quality; and 

 the same spot cannot well be employed to yield 

 two crops of it in succession. It needs a dry 

 situation for its most successful cultivation ; and 

 when spots of a different nature are applied to 



