," and
its soup by further perversion to "Palestine" soup. The original
Moorish name was Archichocke, or Earththorn.

The Globe Artichoke (_Cinara maxima anglicana_) of our kitchen
gardens, when boiled and brought to table, has a middle pulp which
is eaten as well as the soft delicate pulp at the base of each prickly
floret. "This middle pulp," says Gerard, "when boiled with the broth
of fat flesh, and with pepper added, makes a dainty dish being
pleasant to the taste, and accounted good to procure bodily desire.
(It stayeth the involuntary course of the natural seed)." Evelyn tells
us: "This noble thistle brought from Italy was at first so rare in
England that they were commonly sold for crowns apiece." Pliny
says: "Carthage spent three thousand pounds sterling a year in
them." The plant is named Cinara, from _cinis_, "ashes," because
land should be manured with these. It contains phosphoric acid, and
is, therefore, stimulating.

The leaves of the Globe Artichoke afford somewhat freely on
expression a juice which is bitter, and acts as [549] a brisk diuretic
in many dropsies. Such a constituent in the plant was known to the
Arabians for curdling milk.

The Jerusalem Artichoke (_Helianthus tuberosus_) is of the
Sunflower genus, having been brought at first from Brazil, and
being now commonly cultivated in England for its edible tubers.
These are red outside, and white within; they contain sugar, and
albumen, with all aromatic volatile principle, and water. The tuber is
the _Topinambour_, and _Pois de terre_ of the French; having been
brought to Europe in 1617. It furnishes more sugar and less starch
than the Potato.

In 1620 the Jerusalem Artichoke was quite common as a vegetable
in London: though, says Parkinson, when first introduced, it was "a
dainty for a queen." Formerly, it was baked in pies with beef
marrow, dates, ginger, raisins, and sack. The juice pressed out
before the plant blossoms was used by the ancients for restoring the
hair of the head, even when the person was quite bald.

The Sunflower has been from time immemorial a popular remedy
for malarial fevers in Russia, Turkey, and Persia, being employed as
a tincture made by steeping the stems and leaves in brandy. It is
considered even preferable to quinine, sometimes succeeding when
this has failed, and being free from any of the inconveniences which
often arise from giving large doses of the drug: whilst the pleasant
taste of the plant is of no