Chicory

Chicory (Cichorium Intybus), a perennial plant belonging to the Compositae, closely related to the endive (q.v.) and less closely to the lettuce (q.v.) and dandelion (q.v.). It has a long tap-root and rigid branched stem with a milky juice and few cauline leaves, a rosette of pinnately-lobed radical leaves, and large sessile heads of brilliant light blue strap-shaped florets. The heads are surrounded by two rows of bracts, the outer reflexed, and the fruits are surmounted by a rudimentary calyx. The leaves are blanched as a salad and the roots are largely mixed with coffee. Chicory is itself adulterated with carrot, mangold-wurzel, oak-bark, tan, mahogany dust, baked horse-liver, Venetian red, etc. It is unwholesome if used constantly in any large proportion to coffee, and has none of the stimulating effect of the latter substance. The plant is wild throughout Europe and Western Asia, growing chiefly on dry soil, and is cultivated in some parts of England.