146 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 



barm, used to be a custom with some of the inhabi- 

 tants of the Chinese seas. Old Fuller referring to 

 this plant says, " Some avow it soveraigue for men 

 and beasts in most maladies, though the scent 

 thereof be somewhat valiant and offensive"; and 

 Sir William Temple in his " Treatis on Health and 

 Long Life," says, " Garlic has, of all plants, the 

 greatest strength, affords most nourishment, and 

 supplies most spirits to those who eat little flesh " ; 

 he also' states that it is a specific remedy in gout. 

 It was greatly commended by old writers as a cure 

 for ague ; and is still in Kent, and probably in other 

 counties, placed in the stocking of the child 

 afflicted with the whooping-cough, in order to allay 

 this malady, (See Pratt's " Plowering Plants," &c.) 

 There are several varieties of garlic natives of 

 our country. The Crow Garlic {A. vineale), not uu- 

 frequently found throughout England and the 

 south of Scotland, also near Dublin ; its leaves are 

 sometimes used as a salad. The Broad-leaf Garlic 

 or Ramson {A. msinuni). Moist shady groves and 

 thickets are its favourite habitation, and the copious 

 snow-white flowers, enlivening many a shady dell, 

 might be seen with pleasure, if the odour of the 

 herb, whenever it is bruised or trodden upon, did 

 not so frequently infect the air around. In oldeu 

 times this plant was considered by our ancestors 

 highly beneflcial to health, as we learn from one of 

 our oldest proverbs which reads thus in modern 

 ^English : — 



"Eat Leeks in March and Eamsons in May, 

 All the year after physicians may play." 



Ray considers the island of Ramsay to have taken 

 its name from the quantity of the broad-leaf garlic 

 or Ramson which grows there. In Kanitschatka this 

 plant is much prized by the inhabitants, both as a 

 medicine and as an auxiliary article for food. The 

 Russians, as well as the natives, gather it in large 

 quantities for winter use. After being steeped in 

 water, it is raised with cabbage, onions, and other 

 ingredients, the whole forming a ragout, which is 

 eaten cold. This plant is there considered as almost 

 a specific against the scurvy, no sooner lifting its 

 head above the snow than the dreadful disease 

 loses all its horrors; at even the worst stages a cure 

 is produced by the plentiful use of the wild garlic. 

 According to Skinner, the word garlic is derived 

 from the A.-S. Gar, as applied to a lance, and as Lear, 

 a leek, — from the leaves rising like lances or 

 javelins. 



Shalot or Eschalot {A. ascalonicum) is a relative of 

 the Onion, and was formerly called Scalion, from 

 Ascalon, a town in Syria, near the Mediterranean, 

 from whence the Greeks first procured them, Pliny 

 says the Ascalonian onions are proper for sauce. 

 The time of its introduction into this country is not 

 known ; some writers think we owe it to the cru- 

 saders. Turner mentions it as a well-known plant in 



his "Signes of Herbs," published in 154:8. This plant 

 resembles the true garlic in having its roots divided 

 into cloves or smaller bulbs, inclosed in a thin mem- 

 brane. Each of these small bulbs sends forth two or 

 three fistular awl-shaped leaves, issuing from a 

 sheath ; they are nearly similar but not so large as 

 those of the Onion. The Shalot does not in all situa- 

 tions produce perfect seeds or even flowers, there- 

 fore some old authors denominated it the baiTen 

 onion from this circumstance. The want of seed is, 

 however, fully compensated by the multiplication of 

 the bulbs. The flavour is much more pungent than 

 that of the Garlic, but not so rank. 



The Chive (Allh/m Sc/iceiwjiras/im) is the smallest 

 though one of the finest-flavoured of the genus. It 

 is a hardy perennial plant, an inhabitant of Northern 

 Europe and Russian Asia, said to be a native of 

 Britain, though rarely found growing in a wild state. 

 The leaves, which resemble small rushes, are used for 

 salads, &c,, and in some cottage gardens it is planted 

 as an edging to the flower-beds. 



The Leek (A. Forrum) is a branch of the Onion 

 family, and is said to be indigenous to Switzerland ; 

 but it has been for so many years under cultivation 

 that its native place cannot, perhaps, be very ac. 

 curately traced. Pliny states that the best leeks 

 were brought from Egypt and the next to them 

 from Orthe, now called Guzelhizar, a town about 

 15 miles from Ephesus. This great naturalist 

 relates that this vegetable was brought into notice 

 and esteem through the Emperor Nero, who used 

 to "eat them for several days in every month to clear 

 his voice. He took them with oil only, debarring 

 himself even from bread on these days. 



The exact period whentheLeek was introduced into 

 this country is not known, " Hortus Britannicus " 

 states that it was about 1562 ; but they must have 

 beeniucultivationmucheai-lier,asthey appearto have 

 been used by the Welsh as far back as we can trace 

 their history, Tusser sings their praises in verse, and 

 says they were in common use in farm-houses long 

 before his time, Gerard, who wrote soon after, 

 mentions leeks in such a manner as to induce us to 

 think them indigenous to our soil ; he says, " Leeks 

 are very common everywhere in other countries, as 

 well as in England." The hardiness and pungency 

 of the Leek both tend to recommend it in those 

 countries where few potherbs are grown, and it 

 seems to have great facility in adapting itself to 

 climate. The Leek which is cultivated in the colder 

 parts of Scotland, and thence is called the Scotch 

 leek, is more hardy and also more pungent than the 

 broad-leaved variety, chiefly cultivated in Engknd. 

 It was formerly a very favourite ingredient in the 

 " cock-a-lcekie " of the Scotch, which is so graphi- 

 cally described in " The Fortunes of Nigel" and of 

 which James the First is reported to have been so 

 fond that he retained his preference for it notwith- 

 standing all the dainties of Loudon cookery. 



