160 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



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 Jerusalem. 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 excellent 

 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 respective opera- 

 tions of potato culture. Some complain of the diffi- 

 culty of getting the ground cleared of the roots, and, 

 sloven-like, resign a portion of the garden to be over- 

 run with the tubers year after year, and thus gather 

 what they can, of the worst quality, from the confu- 

 sion of chance growth and the just sterility of lazy 

 cultivation. The potato, long treated in the same 

 way, and for the same reason, was bad and unprofit- 

 able ; and hence, from sloth or wrong judgment, 

 founded on ignorance, this invaluable boon was re- 

 tained in the country a hundred years before it reached 

 the families of the poor ! To get rid of stray roots, 

 whether artichoke or potato, do not sow onions for 

 the next crop, as the seedling beds will be sadly de- 

 faced by the strong growth of the lurking roots, but 

 wait for a late crop : and when all that is alive of the 



