36 BULLETIN 123, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



out with a spoon after cooking, but is not troublesome if left in the 

 young heads. The individual " leaves " are pulled off and eaten with 

 a sauce or dressing. The bottoms may be dipped in batter and fried 

 in deep fat or covered with force meat and then baked like stuffed 

 tomatoes. Artichokes are interesting garden plants worth knowing. 

 The canned French artichokes are fairly common in shops which 

 cater to Italian trade. 



The cardoon is allied to the globe artichoke, but is little used in the 

 United States. 



HONEY. 



Honey may be properly classed among the food products derived 

 from flowers. In ancient times, before cane sugar was manufactured, 

 it was the principal sweet, and to-day it is still much prized. A 

 study of its history and folklore is interesting. 



The varying qualities of honey derived from different flowers are 

 worthy of note. That obtained from white clover fields is of fine 

 flavor and light color; raspberry plantations furnish a good quality, 

 while buckwheat gives a dark color and a flavor which some do not 

 relish ; and certain wild plants, such as mountain laurel, may impart 

 poisonous qualities to the honey made from them. Recipes which 

 have been handed down for generations are still used for honey cakes 

 and cookies. Strained or extracted honey may be substituted for 

 molasses or other sirups or for sugar in many common recipes. 

 (Ref. No. 8.) 



COLORS AND FLAVORING EXTRACTS. 



Flowers find a considerable use in cookery for coloring and flavor- 

 ing purposes. Dried saffron flowers, as already mentioned, are em- 

 ployed for coloring foods yellow. Violets are used in a similar way 

 for imparting a purple color, while a number of other colors are 

 made from blossoms or leaves. Some highly prized flavoring ex- 

 tracts are made from flowers ; for instance, rose extract, orange-flower 

 water, and sirup of violets. Nasturtium flowers are used, like tar- 

 ragon, for flavoring vinegar, and other similar uses might be cited. 



FRUITS USED AS VEGETABLES. 



The fruit of a plant, botanically, is that portion in which the seed 

 is perfected. In popular language, the distinction between a fruit 

 and a vegetable is not easily made, and on the border line are several 

 important food plants which have been called " vegetable fruits." 

 Such are tomato, eggplant, peppers, and many members of the gourd 

 family (melons, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin, vegetable marrow, 

 etc.). 



Some varieties of the gourd family were known in Egypt and 

 Persia from the earliest times, and squashes or pumpkins, the " pom- 



