TRISTAN

tristan, and the writers named above); prose: the largest and most important group (see grail, lancelot, merlin, tristan). of these three branches the prose romances offer the most insuperable problems; none can be dated with any certainty; all are of enormous length; and all have undergone several redactions. of not one do we as yet possess a critical and comparative text, and in the absence of such texts the publication of any definite and detailed theory as to the evolution and relative position of the separate branches of the arthurian cycle is to be deprecated. the material is so vast in extent, and in so chaotic a condition, that the construction of any such theory is only calculated to invite refutation and discredit. the best general study of the cycle is to be found in gaston paris's manual _la litterature francaise au moyen age_ (new and revised edition, 1905). see also the introduction to vol. xxx. of _histoire litteraire de la france_. for the theories as to origin, see the introductions to professor forster's editions of the poems of chretien de troyes, notably that to vol. iv., _der karrenritter_, which is a long and elaborate restating of his position. also professor h. zimmer's articles in _gottingische gelehrte anzeigen_, 12 and 20. for the insular view, ferd. lot's "etudes sur la provenance du cycle arthurien," _romania_, vols. xxiv.-xxviii., are very valuable. for a popular treatment of the subject, cf. nos. i. and iv. of _popular studies in romance and folk-lore_ (nutt). robert huntington fletcher's "the arthurian matter in the chronicles" (vol. x. of _harvard studies and notes in philology and literature_), is a most useful summary. (j. l. w.) 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-kharshuf_. 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 _chou_, a cabbage. article (from lat. _articulus_, a joint), a term primarily for that which connects two parts together, and so transferred to the parts thus joined; thus the word is used of the separate clauses or heads in contracts, treaties or statutes and the like; of a literary composition on some specific subject in a periodical; or of particular commodities, as in "articles of trade and commerce." it appears also in the phrase "in the article of death" to translate _in articulo mortis_, at the moment of death. in grammar the term is used of the adjectives which state the extension of a substantive, i.e. the number of individuals to which a name applies; the indefinite article denoting one or any of a particular class, the definite denoting a particular member of a class.