CHICORY, Cicliorium Intybus (family Compositae), in its wild state is a native of Great Britain, occurring most frequently in dry chalky soils and by road-sides. It has a long fleshy tap root, a rigid branching hairy stem rising to a height of 2 or aft.— the leaves around the base being lobed and toothed, not unlike those of the dandelion. The flower heads are of a bright blue colour, few in number, and measure nearly an inch and a half across. Chicory is cultivated extensively on the continent of Europe—Holland, Belgium, France, Germany. Its roots roasted and ground are used as a substitute for, adulterant of, or addition to coffee; both roots and leaves are employed as salads; and the plant is grown as a fodder or herbage crop for cattle. In Great Britain it is chiefly in connection with coffee that chicory is em ployed. A large proportion of the chicory root used for this purpose is obtained from neighbouring continental countries ; but a considerable quantity is cultivated in England, chiefly in York shire. It gives the coffee additional colour, bitterness and body.
The blanched leaves are much esteemed by the French as a winter salad, Barbe de capucin. In Belgium a variety of chicory called JFitloe f is preferred. There, also, the fresh roots are boiled and eaten with butter, and throughout the Continent the roots are stored for use as salads during winter.
In North America chicory is an introduced weed which has become widely distributed. It is abundant in pastures and along roadsides in the eastern United States and Canada, and is usually considered a pest. As a cultivated crop chicory is grown to some extent for its root. Chicory (French endive) is grown to some ex tent as a forcing crop. The roots are grown in the open during the summer and are taken up in the fall to be forced during the winter. It may be forced under greenhouse benches, in cellars or out of doors. (See also ENDIVE.)