Book 1. 



ALLIACEOUS PLANTS. 



639 



Subsect. 7. Herb-Patience, or Patience-Dock. — Rumex Patientia, L. (Blachv. 349.) 

 Hex. Dig. L. and Polygoneee, J. Rhubarbe des Monies, Fr. ; Gartenampfer, Ger. ; 

 and Romice, Ital. 



3807. The herb-patience is a hardy perennial plant, a native of Italy, introduced in 

 1573. The leaves are broad, long, and acute-pointed, on reddish foot-stalks; the stems, 

 where allowed to spring up, rise to the height of four or five feet. It produces its 

 whitish-green flowers in June and July. 



3808. Use. " In old times, garden-patience was much cultivated as a spinage. It 

 is now very much neglected, partly perhaps on account of the proper mode of using it 

 not being generally known. The leaves rise early in the spring ; they are to be cut 

 while tender, and about a fourth part of common sorrel is to be mixed with them. In 

 this way patience-dock is much used in Sweden, and may be safely recommended as 

 forming an excellent spinage dish." (Neill.) 



3809. Culture. Garden-patience is easily raised from seeds, which may be sown in lines in the manner 

 of common spinage, or white beet, and thinned out and treated afterwards like the latter plant. If the 

 plants be regularly cut over two or three times in the season, they continue in a healthy productive state 

 for several years. 



Sect. V. Alliaceous Plants. 



3810. The alliaceous esculents are of great antiquity and universal cultivation. No 

 description of useful British garden is without the onion ; and few in other parts of the 

 world, without that bulb, or garlic. They require a rich, and rather strong soil, and 

 warm climate, thriving better in Spain and France than in England. The onion and 

 leek crops may occupy a twentieth of the open compartments in most kitchen-gardens ; 

 and a bed of five or seven square yards in those of the cottager. 



Subsect. 1. Onion. — Allium Cepa, L. Hexandria Monogynia, L. and Asphodeleae, J. 

 Oignon, Fr. ; Ziviebel, Ger. ; and Cipola, Ital. 



381 1. The common bulbous onion is a biennial plant, supposed to be a native of Spain ; 

 though as Neill observes, " neither the native country, nor the date of its introduction 

 into this island, are correctly known." It is distinguished from other alliaceous plants 

 by its large fistular leaves, swelling stalk, coated bulbous root, and large globular head 

 of flowers, which expand the second year in June and July. 



3812. Use. The use of the onion, in its different stages of growth, when young, in 

 salads, and when bulbing and mature, in soups and stews, is familiar to every class of 

 society in Europe ; and for these purposes has been held in high estimation from time 

 immemorial. 



3813. The varieties ascertained to be best deserving of culture are as follows : — 



The silver-skinned ; flat, middle-sized, and 

 shining ; chiefly used for pickling 



Early silver-skinned ; a subvariety of the 

 other, smaller, and excellent for pick- 

 ling 



Yellow ; small, globular, strong-flavored, 

 and good for pickling 



Two-bladed ; flat, small, brownish-green, 

 has few leaves, ripens early, and keeps 

 well ; one of the best for pickling 



True Portugal onion of the fruiterers ; 

 large, flatly globular, mild; does not 

 keep well 



Spanish, Reading, white Portugal, Cam- 

 bridge, Evesham, or sandy onion ; large, 

 flat, white tinged with green, mild, 

 but does not keep very well ; good for 

 a general crop, much cultivated round 

 Reading 



Strasburgh, Dutch, or Flanders onion, the 

 seed being generally procured from 

 thence,; or Essex onion, when the seed 

 is saved in that county; oval, large, 

 and light-red, tinged with green ; har- 

 dy, keeps well, but of strong flavor ; 

 much the most generally cultivated in 

 Britain 



Deptford onion ; middle-sized, globular, 

 pale-brown ; a subvariety of the Stras- 

 burgh, and very generally cultivated 



Globe; large, globular, pale-brown, tinged 

 with red, mild, and keeps well ; very 

 popular among gardeners 



3814. Estimate of sorts. The Strasburgh is most generally adopted for principal crops, and next the 

 Deptford and globe. The Portugal and Spanish yield large crops for early use, and the silver-skinned 

 and two-bladed are reckoned the best for pickling. The potatoe-onion is planted in some places as an 

 auxiliary crop, but is considered inferior to the others in flavor : the Welsh onion is sometimes sown 

 for early spring-drawing. 



3815. Soil. The onion, " to attain a good size, requires rich mellow ground on a dry sub-soil. If the 

 soil be poor or exhausted, recruit it with a compost of fresh loam and well consumed dung, avoiding to 

 use stable-dung in a rank unreduced state. Turn in the manure to a moderate depth ; and in digging 

 the ground, let it be broken fine. Grow picklers in poor light ground, to keep them small." The mar- 

 ket-gardeners at Hexham sow their onion-seed on the same ground for twenty or more years in succes- 

 sion, but annually manure the soil. After digging and levelling the ground, the manure, in a very 

 rotten state, is spread upon it, the onion-seed sown upon the manure, and covered with earth from the 

 alleys, and the crops are abundant and excellent in quality. (Hort. Trans, i. 121.) 



James's keeping ; large, pyramidal, brown, 

 hardy, strong in flavor, and keeps well : 

 originated some years ago by James, a 

 market-gardener, in Lambeth Marsh. 



Pale-red ; middle-sized, flattened, globe 

 shape, pale-red, strong flavor, keeps 

 well 



Blood-red, Dutch blood-red, St. Thomas s 

 onion; middle-sized, flat, very hardy, 

 deep red, strong flavor, and keeps par- 

 ticularly well ; much grown in Wales 

 and Scotland: in the London market 

 it is esteemed for its diuretic qualities 



Tripoli ; the largest onion grown ; oval, 

 light red, tinged with green and brown, 

 soft and mild, but does not keep long 

 after it is taken up 



Lisbon; large, globular, smooth, bright, 

 white, and thin skin, tardy in ripening 

 but hardy, much used for autumnal 

 sowing ; seed generally obtained from 

 the south of France 



Welsh onion, or ciboule (Allium Jistulosum, 

 L ); a native of Siberia, hardy, strong in 

 flavor, but does not bulb ; sown in 

 autumn for drawing in spring 



Underground or potatoe onion ; multiplies 

 itself by the formation of young bulbs 

 on the parent root, and produces an 

 ample crop below the surface ; ripens 

 early, but does not keep beyond Feb- 

 ruary ; flavor strong 



Tree or bulb-bearing onion {Allium 

 cepa, var vivipara), Oignon d'Bgypte, 

 Fr. ; originally from Canada, where the 

 climate being too cold for onions to 

 flower and seed, when they are al- 

 lowed to throw up flower-stalks, the 

 flower becomes viviparous, and bears 

 bulbs instead of flowers ; here it re- 

 tains the same habit. It is more an 

 object of curiosity than use, though, 

 in some parts of Wales, Milne informs 

 us (Hort. Trans, iii. 419.); the cauline 

 bulbs are planted, and produce ground- 

 onions of a considerable size, while 

 the stem supplies a succession of 

 bulbs for next year's planting. It is 

 considered stronger, ana to go farther 

 as seasoning than other onions. (Hort. 

 Trans iii. 369. 



Scallion ; a term generally given to the 

 strong green tops of onions in the 

 spring which do not bulb, or to the 

 shoots from bulbs of the preceding year. 

 Miller mentions it as a distinct sort ; 

 some consider it the Welsh onion ; and 

 Milne thinks it may not improbably 

 be the hollow leek, a species of Allium 

 grown in Pembrokeshire and other 

 parts of South Wales, with roots in 

 clusters like that of shallots. 



(Hort. Trans, iii. 41 G.) 



