Endive and Chicory 



115 



herbs, of probably a lialf dozen species, in Europe and Africa, 

 of which two are cultivated. 



C. Endivia, Linn. Sp. PL 813. Endive. Annual, perhaps 

 also biennial, usually with a strong taproot, forming a cluster 

 or rosette of brittle edible foliage, juice milky ; stem 2 to 3 

 ft. tall, very leafy, loosely long-hairy (particularly on line 

 beneath the leaves), branching, the branches soft and often 

 more or less f asciated : leaves oblong, obovate-oblong or ovate- 

 oblong in outline, narrowed to the base to a short winged 

 petiole, 8 to 12 in. long and 3 to 5 in. broad, sometimes sparsely 

 hairy on the midrib beneath, in cultivated forms deeply sinuate 

 many-lobed and crisped, the lobes sometimes 1 in, broad and 

 in other forms multifld and almost thread-like; stem leaves 

 similar but successively smaller, alternate, passing into lanceo- 

 late broad-based clasping bracts : flower-heads axillary and 

 others terminating short or long branches, about 12- to 16- 

 flowered, florets perfect and purple-rayed; receptacle naked; 

 involucre short-cylindric, scales in about two rows of which 

 the inner are lanceolate-subacute and erect and hyaline-mar- 

 gined and the outer ones leafy and broad, spreading or recurved 

 and ciliate-margined, the head often subtended by two short- 

 spreading obtuse ciliate bracts ; ovary obconic, bearing at its 

 top a rim of pappus-scales like a scalloped edging inside which 

 arises the hairy corolla-tube; style-branches purple, long and 

 curving backward or coiled: achene ("seed") oblong but 

 enlarging toward the top, 3 to 4 mm. (about % in.) long, 

 angled and ribbed, glabrous, carrying the scalloped pappus- 

 crown which may be broken or w^anting in the commercial 

 seed and which is one-sixth to one-eighth the total length of 

 the achene and crown, the achene weighing 1% to 2 mg. and 

 retaining its vitality 8 to 10 years. — Probably Asian but by 

 some botanists supposed to be a culture-form of C. pumilum, 

 Jacq. (C. divaricatum, Schousb.) of the Mediterranean region 

 and by others of C. Intijhns, the chicory. 



C. Intybus, Linn. Sp. PI. 813. Chicory. Perennial with 

 hard long taproot w^hich is much thickened in some of the 

 cultivated races, taller, stiffer and more virgate than C. En- 



