ARTICHOKE, two plants of the family Asteraceer. The true, sometimes called French, artichoke (Cynara scolymus), a native of the Mediterranean region, is a coarse, stout, peren nial, thistle-like herb, three to five feet tall, with rather spiny leaves, the lower of which are often three feet or more long, and large terminal heads of blue or white flowers. It is cultivated for the edible thickened outer scales and "bot toms" (receptacles) of the flower heads which sometimes exceed four inches in diameter with out becoming too old for eating raw as salad, pickled or cooked like cauliflower. Sometimes the young stems and leaves are blanched and cooked as a pot-herb. In Europe many varieties are popular; in America the globe variety is planted almost to the exclusion of others, with the result that this variety has almost become united to the name in popular usage. The cul tivation of this species in America is confined mostly to the southern States and California. Since the plant is rather tender, winter pro tection must be given where the ground freezes. If planted in rich soil and set four feet apart the plants will yield two or three crops before a new plantation should be made; if allowed to stand longer the yield gradually diminishes. New plantations are made either with seedling or sucker plants. Most of the artichokes offered in the Northern markets of the United States come from California.
The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuber osus), a native of eastern North America, is a perennial sunflower-like herb, five to 12 feet tall, with rough leaves four to eight inches long and many yellow terminal flower-heads often two to three inches in diameter. The edible pear-shaped purplish, red, white or yellow tubers for which the plant is often cultivated are numerous, seldom more than three inches in diameter, rather watery but of pleasant flavor, especially when prepared like cauliflower, with a white sauce. Perhaps no vegetable is of easier cultivation. For home use the tubers are generally planted in well-drained soil in some out of the way corner of the garden and al lowed to take care of themselves from year to year, the few tubers and pieces of root left after digging sufficing to restock the bed. In
field culture the methods are like those prac tised with the potato except that the tubers may be left in the ground over winter and dug when needed. They are not injured by frost if in the soil, but if frozen after being dug they spoil quickly. If desired they may be dug and stored in pits like turnips, but with a somewhat lighter covering of straw and earth. The usual yield is from 200 to 500 bushels to the acre. When land becomes infested, as it sometimes does, with the plant, pigs, for which the tubers make valuable food, may be turned loose upon the field. The tubers resemble potatoes in com position and like them are used largely in Europe for the manufacture of alcohol. The young plants are sometimes used as cattle food and the dry stalks for fuel. Consult 'Bur or Globe Artichoke' (in United States Depart ment of Agriculture Year Book, 1899) ; Circu lar 31 (1899) ; Bailey, 'Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture' (1914) ; Vilmorin, 'The Vege table Garden) (translation by Robinson, 1885).
ARTICLE, in grammar, a part of speech Article, in grammar, a part of speech used before nouns to limit or define their ap plication. In the English language a or an is the indefinite article (the latter form being used before a vowel sound) and the the definite article. The English indefinite article is really a modified form of the numeral adjective one; so the German ein and the French un stand for the numeral and the article. There are traces in various languages showing that the definite article was originally a pronoun; thus the Eng lish the is closely akin to both this and that. The Latin language has neither the definite nor the indefinite article; the Greek has the defi nite; the Hebrew and Arabic definite article was prefixed to its noun, while, on the other hand, in the Syriac and Chaldaic it was affixed to the noun, as it is in the Icelandic. In the Scandinavian language the definite article is appended to the end of the word as hus-et, the house. There is no article in Russian.