VEGETABLES DESCEIPTION AND CULTUKE. 265 



it contains but little nutriment, and is cultivated merely 

 to please the palate. The heads are sometimes pickled. 

 It is eaten by the French as a salad, with oil and vinegar, 

 salt and pepper; the bottoms are often fried in paste like 

 the eggplant. The English gather them when they 

 spread their scales and the flower appears about to open; 

 the whole head is boiled and scales pulled off, one or 

 two at a time, dipped in butter and pepper, and the mealy 

 part stripped off with the teeth. The bottom, when the 

 leaves are disposed of, is eaten with the knife and fork. 

 The flowers have the properties of rennet in curdling 

 milk. 



ARTICHOKE, JERUSALEM.— (HeliantJi us tuberosus.) 



This is a hardy, perennial species of sunflower, a native 

 of Brazil, introduced into England in 1617, and was much 

 esteemed as a garden 

 vegetable until the Irish 

 potato took its place. 

 The crops obtained in 

 good soils are enormous. 



„,, ,. „ , . ,, Fig. 101 — Jerusalem Artichoke. 



The salts found in the & 



ashes are mainly potash and lime, the former very largely. 

 Culture. — It flourishes best in a rich, light soil, with an 

 open exposure, but will thrive in almost any soil or loca- 

 tion. Plant in spring or fall, either small tubers or the 

 large ones, cut into sets of one or two eyes, four inches 

 deep, in rows three and a half feet apart. Make the rows 

 run north and south, to admit the sun, and put the plants 

 eighteen inches apart in the rows. Keep the ground free 

 from weeds and earth up slightly. The}- will be tit for 

 use in the fall. Take care to dig them up thoroughly, as 

 the smallest piece will vegetate. They will grow on land 

 too poor for almost anything else. If the top be cut off 

 one-half way down in August, it is said by some that the 



