1 1 8 Gleanings in Old Garden Literature. 



too late to sow them ; the character of the 

 premium offered suggests a more immediate 

 gratification of the royal palate. 



The peck of green peas, which is said 

 to be offered for sale annually at Covent 

 Garden Market for sixpence as a customary 

 obligation, is not claimed till the ist of 

 June. 



The artichoke described by Turner and 

 Gerarde, authors of Herbals between 1550 

 and 1597, is that of which the head supplies 

 the edible portion. Turner recommends that 

 the leaves should be boiled with wine and oil. 

 Gerarde tells us that they were sometimes 

 eaten raw with pepper and salt, or else 

 boiled in broth with pepper seasoning, and 

 served "with other junkets." Parkinson, in 

 his Theatre of Plants (1629), speaking of the 

 Jerusalem or sun-flower artichoke, which is 

 totally distinct, seems to say that they used 

 in his day to make pies of the tubers boiled, 

 " which," he assures us, " are a delicate kind 

 of baked meat." 



The common artichoke is evidently, as 

 Pliny noticed, an evolution from the thistle ; 



