120 On the Groivtb and Propagatian 



as exhibiting- a mode of propagation, in plants, which 

 I believe has, hitherto, been unnoticed by the botani- 

 cal writers, several of the most intelligent in that 

 branch of science (here) having told me, that the ob- 

 servations now made, are wholly new to them,. 



As I received the root without any distinguishing 

 name, and have examined several treatises on botany 

 and gardening, without being able to find any account 

 of this variety of the Allium Cepa, I have ventured to 

 give it the above name, as designating, in some mea- 

 sure, the nature of the plant: but this name may give 

 ivay to any other mpre proper, or common. 



The bulb, or root, • which I have mentioned, was 

 planted in the spring of this year, in a good, but rather 

 stiff, soil, where it spon shot up with a hollow stem, 

 after the manner of the common onion, to the height 

 of above fifteen inches, and there formed a cluster of 

 small bulbs, from the centre of which there shot out 

 another stem, like the first, to the height of about 

 twelve inches, where there was formed another cluster 

 of bulbs. From these bulbs proceeded a third stem, 

 about ten inches high, upon which there grew a third 

 cluster, proportionally smaller than any of the preced- 

 ing ones. The number of bulbs, produced from one 

 root, amounted to thirty-two, 



Upon attentively observing the last cluster, there 

 appeared to be something like seed-vessels shot out, 

 about half an inch from the stem of the plant, in com- 

 pany with the last and smallest of the bulbs. It appear- 



