PLANTS CULTIVATED FOB THKIR STEMS OR LEAVES. 93 



same opinion. Moreover, the artichoke has not been 

 found out of gardens ; and since the Mediterranean 

 region, the home of all the CynarcB, has been thoroughly 

 explored, it may safely be asserted that it exists nowhere 

 wild. 



The cardoon, in which we must also include C. 

 horrida of Sibthorp, is indigenous in Madeira and in the 

 Canary Isles, in the mountains of Marocco near Mogador, 

 in the south and east of the Iberian peninsula, tlie 

 south of France, of Italy, of Greece, and in the islands 

 of the Mediterranean Sea as far as Cyprus.^ Munby ^ does 

 not allow G. cardunculus to be wild in Algeria, but 

 he does admit Cynara humilis of Linnaeus, which is 

 considered by a few authors as a variety. 



The cultivated cardoon varies a good deal with regard 

 to the division of the leaves, the number of spines, and 

 the size — diversities which indicate long cultivation. 

 The Eomans eat the receptacle which bears the flowers, 

 and the Italians also eat it, under the name of girdlo. 

 Modern nations cultivate the cardoon for the fleshy part 

 of the leaves, a custom which is not yet introduced into 

 Greece.' 



The artichoke ofiers fewer varieties, which bears out 

 the opinion that it is a form derived from the cardoon. 

 Targioni,* in an excellent article upon this plant, 

 relates that the artichoke was brought from Naples to 

 Florence in 1466, and he proves that ancient writers, 

 even Athenseus, were not acquainted with the artichoke, 

 but only with the wild and cultivated cardoons. I must 

 mention, however, as a sign of its antiquity in the north 

 of Africa, that the Berbers have two entirely distinct 

 names for the two plants : addad for the cardoon, taga 

 for the artichoke.^ 



' Webb, Fhyt. Ccmar., iii. sect. 2, p. 384 ; Ball, SpicUegium Fl. Maroc, 

 p. 524; Willkomm and Lange, Pr. Fl. Hisp.; Bertoloni, \F?. Ital., ix. p, 

 86 ; Boissier, Fl. Orient, iii. p. 357 ; TJnger and Kotsohy, Inseln Cypern. 

 p. 246. 



' Mnnby, Catal., edit. 2. 



' Heldreich, Nutispflanzen Qriechenlands, p. 27. 



' Targioni, Cenni Storid, p. 52. 



' Dictionnaire Fraru^is-Beriire, publjgljed by the Government, 1 vol. 

 in 8va 



