Tlie Salsify 



197 



ground is ready in spring and the young plants (Fig. 105) 

 thinned as they stand. The plant is perfectly hardy and 

 the roots may be left in the ground over winter, as they are 

 not injured by frost. If one desires to use the plant in 

 winter, however, or wishes to find the best markets, a large 

 part of the roots should be stored in the cellar or in pits. 

 The seeds germinate readily; they are long and stick-like, 

 and are rather difficult to sow with the seed-drill. 



Sometimes salsify is bunched in autumn, but usually it 

 is sent to market in crates or other receptacles. 



The Salsify Plant 



Tragopogon. Compositrp. Between 30 and 40 species of 

 annual, biennial and perennial herbs, in Europe and Asia. 



T. porrifolius. Linn. Sp. PI. 7S9. Salsify. Oyster Plant. 

 Vegetable Oyster. Stout erect glabrous biennial, with milky 

 juice, the slender thickened long taproot constituting the sal- 

 sify of gardens : leaves many, alternate, grass-like or garlic- 

 like {porrifolius means "leak-leaved"), % in. and less wide 

 near the base, very long and long-pointed, the base broad 

 and clasping, margins entire: stem 3 to 4 ft. tall, usually 

 forked : heads solitary and showy, 2 to 3 in. across when 

 expanded, terminal on long naked branches or peduncles 

 that are enlarged and fistulose at the summit, the involucre 

 of many linear acuminate green bracts (in a single series) 

 that equal or exceed the purple rays, flowers closing at mid- 

 day : flowers many in the head, all perfect and ligulate. the 

 rays 5-toothed: fruit 1 to l^o in. long, comprising the ripened 

 carpel and a slender beak or stalk of greater length, the 

 outer fruits in the head having upwardly serrate lines and the 

 slenderer inner ones nearly or quite destitute of them ; on 

 the beak is borne the tuft of soft plumose pappus : the 

 " seed " of commerce is the stick-like brown or gray fruit 

 from which the pappus and more or less of the beak have 

 been broken, ranging about ^ to % in. long, angular, grooved 



