Chard is the name of the juicy leaves of a variety of beet known variously as the white beet, the silver beet, and the sea-kale beet (botanically chard is not related to sea-kale, but it does share its silvery-white colour). The most famous variety of chard is Swiss chard, so named because it is widely cultivated in Switzerland. The ultimate source of the word chard is the Latin cardus, meaning thistle; this Latin word evolved into the French carde, and was used by the French to refer to a variety of artichoke, a thistle-like plant. When the English adopted the word in the mid seventeenth century, spelling it chard, they initially used it to refer to the edible leaf-stalk of the artichoke. By the early eighteenth century, however, chard had also been bestowed on the variety of beet that now bears its name, the reason perhaps being that the root of the chard, like the core of the artichoke, cannot be eaten.