THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 593 



are considered varieties of the same plant, a native of South Europe 

 and North Africa. Indeed, Linnaeus quotes Bauhin as saying that 

 the latter will spring from the seed of the former. 



Parkinson (1629) appears to be the first to call the Cardoon Car- 

 duus esculentus — i.e. " edible thistle " — though it is recorded as having 

 been introduced in 1658 and cultivated in Holyrood Palace Garden in 

 1683. " It has been more cultivated on the Continent than here. The 

 only parts eaten are the inner leaf-stalks and the top of the stalk called 

 the receptacle of the florets when blanched and used in stews, soups, 

 and salads." It is one of the European plants which has spread to an 

 enormous extent over the prakies of South America. 



Dioscorides uses the word Kinara, and Pliny Scohimos, which he 

 also calls Limonia, and classes it among thistles. He is probably 

 referring to the Cardoon in saying, " There is one plant the cultiva- 

 tion of which is extremely profitable and of which I am unable to 

 speak without a certain degree of shame; for it is a well-known fact 

 that some small plots of land planted with thistles (scolymos) in the 

 vicinity of Great Carthage, and of Corduba more particularly, produce 

 a yearly income of six thousand sest-erces [about £26] , this being the 

 way in which we make the monstrous productions even of the earth 

 subservient to our gluttonous appetites, and that, too, when the four- 

 footed brutes instinctively refuse to touch them ! ' ' Pliny also says iij 

 has numerous medicinal vh-tues. In his " History of Plants," Dodoens 

 describes three kinds of Scolymus, or wilde thistle one, he says, 

 " might well be called Carduus asinus — that is to say, Asse thistell." 

 In his plates (1559) he figures both Scolymus, or Cinara, as Articoca 

 of Italy, and Cinarae aliud germs as the Chardons of Italy. He 

 describes it as much more spinescent and less used as food. 



Gerard (1597) gives a good figure of the Artichoke (3 inches in 

 diameter), which he calls Cinara maxima anglica, " the great red Arti- 

 choke." A second differing but little is the C. m. alha. A third, 

 C. sylvestris, or " wilde Artichoke," is much more spinescent, and is 

 called Cardino by the Italians, Chardon by the French, from the Latin 

 carduus ; hence Cardoon. 



Parkinson (1640) alludes to a statement of Theophrastus (fourth 

 century B.C.) that the head of Scolymus is most pleasant, being 

 boyled or eaten raw, but chiefly when it is in flower, as also the inner 

 substance of the heads is eaten." 



Tournefort (1730) says: "The Artichoak is well known at the 

 table. What we call the bottom is the thalamus on which the embryos 

 of the seeds are placed. The leaves are the scales of the empalement. 

 The Choak is the florets, with a chaffy substance intermixt. The 

 French md Germans boil the heads as we do, but the Italians generally 

 eat them raw with salt, oil, and pepper." 



This author seems to refer to the " scales " as being eaten as well 

 as the ** bottom," but does not say when the former were first used, 

 though the word "choak," or, as we would quote it, "choke," is 

 appropriate for the pappus, or " chaffy substance," but the name 



VOL. XXXVI. B B 



