1887] History of Garden Vegetables. 443 
is noted by many authors, as by Ray? in England in 1686, and 
Bryant? in 1783, as also by Gerarde? in 1633. Kalm,* before 
1770, records the use of the tender shoots as a salad in the 
region about Lake Champlain, and Bretschneiders the use of 
the roots and tender leaves in China in the fourteenth century. 
It remains for Japan to cultivate it as a common vegetable. “ This 
root,” says Kizo Tamari,° a Japanese commissioner to the New 
Orleans Exposition, “comes third in general estimation among 
our vegetables. It grows in some districts a foot in circumfer- 
ence and three feet in length, is soft and delicious. It will take 
a year to get such roots, but generally they do not exceed one 
inch and a half in diameter.” This is Japanese testimony; but 
Penhallow,? who spent a year or so in Northern Japan, says the 
roots are tasteless, hard, and fibrous. As grown at Geneva, 
.„ 1884, the testimony was not in favor of any desirable 
quality. It was introduced to Europe from Japan by Siebold,’ 
and the seed was offered in his trade list of 1856. 
In Japan it is called godo and uma busaki ;g in English, Edible 
Gobo; in France, Bardane geante a tres grandes feuilles ; in Ger- 
many, Japanische klettee ; in Italy, dappola.*° 
This long-cultivated plant presents no differences except in 
size from the neglected plant of our waysides and fence corners, 
Burnet. Poterium sanguisorba L. 
The young and tender leaves of the Burnet taste somewhat 
like a green cucumber, and are employed in salads. Itis rarely 
cultivated in the gardens, but occurs in all our books on garden- 
ing. Three varieties are described by Burr,—the Smooth-leaved, 
_ the Hairy-leaved, and the Large-seeded. This latter he deems 
but a seminal variation and a sub-variety only. The following 
synonymy seems clear: : 
Pimpinella S minor levis. Bauh., Phytopin., 1596, 
282. 
* Ray, Hist., 1686, 332. 2 Bryant, Fl. Diet., 1783, 55. 
3 Gerarde, Herbal, ong ol e 4 tyne Trav., 1770-71, iii. 21, 
5 Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., 51. Am. Hort., Sept. 1886, 9. 
7 Penhallow, Am. = Feb. 1882, 120. 8 Siebold, Gard. Chron;, 1856, 300. 
9 Thunberg, Jap. 
zo Vilmorin, Les Pl, pee 1823, 28; The Veg. Gard., 1885, 234. 
+ 
