n the leaf-stalks are
applied close to each other, and wrapped round with bands of hay or
straw, only the points being left free. Earth is then drawn up around
them to the height of 15 or 18 in. Sometimes cardoons are blanched by a
more thorough earthing up, in the manner of celery, but in this case the
operation must be carried on from the end of summer. During severe frost
the tops of the leaves should be defended with straw or litter. Besides
the common and Spanish cardoons, there are the prickly-leaved Tours
cardoon, the red-stemmed cardoon and the Paris cardoon, all of superior
quality, the Paris being the largest and most tender. The common
artichoke is also used for the production of chard.

CARDS, PLAYING. As is the case with all very ancient pastimes, the
origin of playing-cards is obscure, many nations having been credited
with the invention, but the generally accepted view is that they come
from Asia. In the Chinese dictionary, _Ching-tsze-tung_ (1678), it is
said that cards were invented in the reign of Seun-ho, 1120 A.D., for
the amusement of his concubines. There is a tradition that cards have
existed in India from time immemorial--very ancient ones, round in form,
are preserved in museums--and that they were invented by the Brahmans.
Their invention has also been assigned to the Egyptians, with whom they
were said to have had a religious meaning, and to the Arabs. A very
ingenious theory, founded on numerous singular resemblances to the
ancient game of chess (_chaturanga_, the four _angas_ or members of an
army), has been advanced that they were suggested by chess (see "Essay
on the Indian Game of Chess," by Sir William Jones, in his _Asiatic
Researches_, vol. ii.).

The time and manner of the introduction of cards into Europe are matters
of dispute. The 38th canon of the council of Worcester (1240) is often
quoted as evidence of cards having been known in England in the middle
of the 13th century; but the games _de rege et regina_ there mentioned
are now thought to have been a kind of mumming exhibition (Strutt says
chess). No queen is found in the earliest European cards. In the
wardrobe accounts of Edward I. (1278), Walter Stourton is paid 8s. 3d.
_ad opus regis ad ludendum ad quatuor reges_, a passage which has been
thought to refer to cards, but it is now supposed to mean chess, which
may have been called the "game of four kings," as was the case in India
(_chaturaji_). If cards were generally