The fennel in great profusion
covers the ditch-banks in the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres, Monte
Video, and other towns. But the cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) has a
far wider range: it occurs in these latitudes on both sides of the
Cordillera, across the continent. (6/9. M. A. d'Orbigny volume 1
page 474, says that the cardoon and artichoke are both found wild.
Dr. Hooker "Botanical Magazine" volume 40 page 2862, has described
a variety of the Cynara from this part of South America under the
name of inermis. He states that botanists are now generally agreed
that the cardoon and the artichoke are varieties of one plant. I
may add, that an intelligent farmer assured me that he had observed
in a deserted garden some artichokes changing into the common
cardoon. Dr. Hooker believes that Head's vivid description of the
thistle of the Pampas applies to the cardoon, but this is a
mistake. Captain Head referred to the plant which I have mentioned
a few lines lower down under the title of giant thistle. Whether it
is a true thistle, I do not know; but it is quite different from
the cardoon; and more like a thistle properly so called.) I saw it
in unfrequented spots in Chile, Entre Rios, and Banda Oriental.
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