Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
is a plant of the Mediterranean countries. The roots re long, white and fleshy, tapering like the parsnip but never attaining the same diameter. The roots are used, boiled or fried, and the flavor is mild and sweetish and reminds one of the oyster, whence its name oyster plant. McIntosh says that, when dressed as asparagus, there is some resemblance in taaste and tht the flower-stalks, if cut in the spring of the second year before they become hard, and dressed like asparagus, make an excellent dish. The roots, says Burr, thinly sliced, and sometimes used as a salad.
In the thirteenth century, Albertus Magnus describes a wild plant, Oculus porce or flos campi, which commentators identify with the salsify, as having a delectable root, which is eaten, but he makes no mention of cultivation. Salsify is described, but apparently not under ktichen-garden culture, by Matthiolus in 1570 and 1598 but it is not mentioned by him in 1558, when he refers to the yellow-flowered species; there is no mention of salsify culture by Camerarius 1586, but, in 1587, Dalechamp says it is planted in gardens. In 1597, Gerarde describes it but apparently as an inmate of the flower garden. In 1612, Le Jardinier Solitaire speaks of salsify as under the kitchen-garden culture in France; and Dodonaeus, 1616, J. Bauhin, 1651, and Ray, 1686, refer to it as apparently cultivated. After this period its culture seems to have been quite general as it is referred to in the works on gardening beginning with Quintyne, 1693. McMahon, 1806, includes salsify among American garden esculents, and, in 1822, John Lowell says, "though it has been in our gardens for ten years, it has nver been extensively cultivated for the market."
