THE CHINESE ARTICHOKE 



T N the popular mind, the word, artichoke, seems to stand for 

 a class and not a particular thing. Thus we do not speak 

 of the artichoke, but apply the term to a number of plants 

 which produce bulbous or tuberous edible parts. The globe 

 artichoke which perhaps is oftenest meant when we use the 

 word without a qualifying adjective, is the greatly enlarged 

 flower heads of one of the Compositae, Cyiiara scolymus. 

 These often form globular objects three or four inches in 

 diameter. The bracts of the involucre form the edible portion, 

 being distended with inulin, a substance allied to starch which 

 is very common in plants of the Composite family. 



The Jerusalem artichoke also belongs to the Compositae but 

 the part eaten is a true tuber instead of a bud. The plant is, in 

 fact, a sunflower (Helianthus tuber osus). It produces tubers 

 nearly as large as potatoes and quite as nutritious but with a 

 very different flavor due to^ the inulin they contain. The 

 Jerusalem artichoke is usually grown as food for stock but the 

 finer varieties may often be found in market and form no mean 

 addition to our list of culinary vegetables. 



The Chinese or Japanese artichoke, of which we give an il- 

 lustration herewith, is a very different plant from the other 



