98 



THE AMERICAN GARDENER* [Chap. 



CHAPTER IV. 



VEGETABLES AND HERBS. 



191. The word, Vegetables, is not, as was ob- 

 served in Paragraph 5, quite properly used here. 

 This Chapter treats of the things cultivated in the 

 garden to be eaten at our tables as food ; and, they 

 are Vegetables ; but, a tree is also a vegetable ; 

 and such is an herh, or sl fiower. Therefore, as a 

 distinctive appellation, the word, vegetables, is not 

 strictly proper. But, it is the word we use to dis- 

 tinguish this class of the products of the earth from 

 others ; and, therefore, I use it upon this occasion. 

 Herbs are usually placed as a class separate from 

 Vegetables ; but, while some of them are merely 

 medicinal, like Pennyroyal, others are used, not 

 only in medicine and in soups, but also eaten in 

 salads. Therefore, it appeared to be best to bring 

 into this one alphabetical lists, all plants usually 

 grown in a garden, except such as come under the 

 the heads of Fruits, and Flowers. 



192. ARTICHOKE.— A plant little cultivated 

 in America, but very well worthy of cultivation. 

 In its look it very much resembles a thistle of the 

 big-blossomed kind. It sends up a seed stalk, and 

 it blows, exactly like the thistle that we see in the 

 Arms of Scotland, It is, indeed, a thistle upon a 

 gigantic scale. The parts that are eaten are, the 

 lower end of the thick leaves that envelope the seed, 

 and the bottom out of which those leaves imme- 

 diately grow. The whole of the head, before the 

 bloom begins to appear, is boiled, the pod leaves 

 are pulled off by the eater, one or two at a time, 

 and dipped in butter, with a little pepper and salt, 

 ihe mealy part is stripped off by the teeth, and the 



