ARTICHOKE  . The

common artichoke, Cynara, scolymus, is a plant belonging to the natural order Compositae, having some resemblance to a large thistle . It has long been esteemed as a culinary vegetable ; the parts chiefly employed being the immature receptacle or floret disk, with the lower part of the surrounding leaf-scales, which are known as "artichoke bottoms." In Italy the receptacles, dried, are largely used in soups; those of the cultivated plant as Carciofo domestico, and of the wild variety as Carciofo spinoso . The Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus, is a distinct plant belonging to the same order, cultivated for its tubers . It closely resembles the sunflower, and its popular name is a corruption of the Italian Girasole Articiocco, the sunflower artichoke . It is a native of Canada and the north-eastern United States, and was cultivated by the aborigines . The tubers are rich in the carbohydrate inulin and in sugar . The name is derived from the northern Italian articiocco•, or arciciocco, modern carciofo; these words come, through the Spanish, from the Arabic al-kharshiif . False etymology has corrupted the word in many languages: it has been derived in English from " choke," and " heart," or the Latin hortus, a garden; and in French, the form artichaut has been connected with chaud, hot, and thou, a cabbage .