August 8. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
367 
Historical Notes on the Introduction of various 
Plants into the Agriculture and Horticulture of 
Tuscany : a summary of a work entitled Cenni storici 
sulla introduzione di varie piante nell'agricollvra ed orli- 
cullura Toscana. By Dr. Antonio Targioni-Tozzetti. 
Florence, 1850. — (From the Horticultural Societies 
Journal.) 
(Continued from page 348.) 
The cultivation of tlio Sweet potato or Batata (Ipomcea 
Batatas or Batatas edulis) has been at various times at¬ 
tempted in different parts of Italy, but as yet without 
success, notwithstanding the strongest and repeated recom¬ 
mendations of its importance. In a wild state, it is one of 
those maritime plants which is found spread over the shores 
of both the New and Old World, within or near the tropics, 
but its cultivation appears to have originated with the 
Americans. It was evidently unknown to the ancients, and 
the first mention of it on record is by Pigafetta, who found 
it used as an article of food in Brazil, where he landed in 
1519. Its first introduction into Europe was probably by 
Oviedo, after whose return to Spain, in 1526, it was cultivated 
at Malaga, aud from thence sent out to different parts of 
Europe. Clusius purchased some fresh roots in London in 
1581, to carry with him to Vienna. Since then, various at¬ 
tempts to turn the Batata to account, have been made in 
Tuscany, in Lombardy, at Rome, and in other parts of Italy ; 
but all iiave failed, either from the ungenial climate, or still 
more from the difficulty of preserving the roots through the 
winter. The Marchese Ridolfi is said more recently to have 
discovered a mode of treatment, by which these obstacles 
may be in a great measure removed, and to have given an 
account of it in the Acts of the Academy of Georgofili of 
Florence. Yet the cultivation of the root is certainly not 
yet carried to any extent in Italy. 
In his note on the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuber- 
osus) Professor Targioni repeats the common tale of its 
being of Brazilian origin, and deriving its French name of 
Topiuambour from that of the tribe of Indians occupying 
the district of which it is supposed to be a native. But this 
assertion, copied by one writer after another, appears to rest 
solely on a dictum of Clusius, and certainly no traveller in 
the land of the Topinambas has found anything approaching 
to it in botanical affinity or in physiological constitution. 
It is a hardy plant, introduced into Europe from the more 
temperate regions of North America, aud it is amongst the 
Helianthi of that continent, and more especially of the 
Mexican dominions, that its wild prototype must be sought 
for. It was carried from France into Tuscany in the end of 
the 15th or the commencement of the 17 th centuries, and is 
now sparingly cultivated there under the name of tartufi di 
canna , or cane truffles. 
The Artichoke (Cynara Scolymus) is a mere cultivated 
variety of the Qardoon (Cynara Cardunculus), of which the 
still more reduced wild form is common over Southern 
Europe and a portion of Central Asia. What part of this 
wide district may have been its original native country 
cannot well be now ascertained; for, like all thistles, it 
spreads with remarkable facility wherever it finds a genial 
soil. Carried out from Europe to the gardens of Buenos 
Ayres, and escaped from them over the country, it is said to 
constitute that gigantic thistle of the Pampas so feelingly 
described by Sir Francis Head. To the ancient Romans it 
was only known in the shape of the Cardoon, cultivated as a 
culinary vegetable, the part eaten being the petioles of the 
leaves. In Italy, the first record of the artichoke cultivated 
for the sake of the head, or rather the receptacle of the 
flower, was at Naples, in the beginning or middle of the 10th 
century. It was thence earned to Florence, in 1460 ; and at 
Venice, Ermolao Barbaro, who died as late as 1493, only 
knew of a single plant grown as a novelty in a private gar¬ 
den, although it soon aftor became a staple article of 
food over a great part of the Peninsula. 
Lettuces, Chicory and Endive , appear all to have been in 
cultivation ever since the times of the ancient Greeks and 
Romans, without any record of their first introduction. The 
numerous varieties of the Lettuce have been referred by 
modern botanists to three supposed species, (Lactuca sativa, 
L. capitata, and L. crispa), and, as no plants so characterised 
are now to be found wild in our own quarter of the globe, 
their origin is vaguely assigned, as usual, to East India. 
That country may, however, be well ransacked before cab- I 
bage or cos-lettuces are met with growing wild in the 
mountains. Their prototypes may be sought for with much 
better chance of success amongst the common wild Lactuca 
of the Mediterranean region, but can only be determined 
with any degree of probability by a more correct knowledge 
of the changes produced by luxuriant cultivation on their I 
foliage than we now possess. The cultivated Chicory is 
universally acknowledged to be but a slight altered variety 
of the wild plant (Cichorium intybus) so common over a 
great part of Europe; the Endive, on the contrary, is always 
enumerated as a distinct species (Cichorium endivia) of un¬ 
known origin, unless it be “ East India." We fear it must 
share the fate of the Lettuces, he orased from the list of 
botanical species, and reduced to the rank of a cultivated 
variety of the Chicory. 
Uinhellifera abound in the hot regions which surround 
the Mediterranean, and the strong flavour which pervades 
every part of many species has brought several of them 
into use in very early ages, either as condiments, or as arti¬ 
cles of food. Some of them, either from inattention, or 
from not being considered of sufficient value to cultivate, 
have remained unaltered, and their use has not been ex¬ 
tended beyond the limited circles in which they are found 
wild, whilst in others man has succeeded in producing such 
a development of the tap-root, or of the lower part of the 
stem and leaves, with a corresponding softening down of 
the asperity of the flavour, as to supply excellent culinary 
vegetables. Hence the Carrot (Daucus Carota), the Parsnip 
(Pastinaca sativa), and the Celery (Apium graveolens), in 
universal use among European races, and the Finocchio 
(Anethum fmniculum ), more especially appreciated in the 
Italian peninsula. All of these are indigenous to Southern 
Europe, and are now found in a wild state in most countries 
colonised by European races. 
Professor Targioni's researches convince him that the 
Carrot and Parsnip were both known to, and cultivated by, 
the ancient Greeks and Romans ; but that, until the middle 
ages, as far as can be traced from the vague descriptions of 
early writers, the parsnip was very much more general than 
the carrot, although since then the proportions have been 
everywhere reversed. The carrot, indeed, appears much 
more susceptible of improvement under the enlightened 
cultivation of modern days, and the readers of our “ Horti¬ 
cultural Transactions ” will recollect, in the second volume 
of the second series, a paper of Vilmorin-Andrieux’s, in 
which he gives an account of the manner in which he 
succeeded, in the course of a very few years, in converting 
the thin, wiry, useless white roots of the wild carrot into a 
crop of fine, well-shaped, rich-coloured roots, equal to our 
best garden varieties ; whilst in the case of the parsnip he 
has, we believe, never yet succeeded in effecting any per¬ 
ceptible change. 
Celery was known to the ancients, but was considered 
rather as a funereal or ill-omened plant than as an article of 
food. By early modern writers it is mentioned only as a 
medicinal plant. Even as late as the 10th century it is 
spoken of as such by Alamanni, who praises at the same time 
the Macerhni (Smyrnium Olusatrum) for its sweet roots as 
an article of food. It is certain, however, that celery was 
already begun to be grown for the table in Tuscany at about 
the same time, and has now entirely superseded the Maceroni 
which was once much cultivated in Italian gardens in a 
similar way. 
(To be continued.) 
THE “GREEN MARKETS” OF LONDON. 
I now proceed to show the vastness, the regularity, and 
the excellence of the supply of fruit, flowers, and vegetables, 
to the green markets of the metropolis. The markets 
employed, on a large and wholesale scale, for the further¬ 
ance of the important traffic I am about to describe are 
Covent-garden, the Borough, Spitalfields, Farringdon, and 
Portman. Of these the Borough market is the oldest, 
and Farringdon the most recent. Hungerford market, in 
its present state, was opened nearly seven years later than 
Farringdon ; but, as it is an old market in a new form, it 
cannot be classed as recent. 
