GREEN VEGETABLES. 47 



ONIONS -AND LEEK. 



The following species of Allium, L., are cultivated: The common 

 onion, A. Cepa, L. ; a nearly allied species, A. fi.stulosum, L., the 

 Welsh onion; A. sativum, L., the garlic, and a nearly allied form, the 

 sand leek or wild Rocambole, A. Scorodoprasum, L. ; the shallot, A. 

 Ascalonium, L. ; the chive, A. Schoenoprasum, L. ; the leek,' A. Am- 

 peloprasum, L. var. Porrum (genus, L.). 



The sand leek, the wild leek, and chive are natives of Great Britain, 

 though the second appears to be naturalized on rocky banks (Hooker). 



Allium Cepa, L., is said to grow wild in Baluchistan and neighbour- 

 ing countries, according to botanists quoted by De Candolle* ; but it has 

 been cultivated from time immemorial and spread over so many coun- 

 tries that it may have been apparently wild elsewhere. It has been used 

 as a spell in Chaldea, possibly 5000 B.c.f It was the Kormuon of Theo- 

 phrastus and the Caepa of Pliny, who observes with regard to the onion 

 in Egypt: " Garlic and onions are invoked by the Egyptians when 

 taking an oath, in the number of their deities." Juvenal, a contem- 

 porary of Pliny, wrote in his satirical manner, " While towns worship 

 the dog, but none Diana, to injure the leek and the onion is wicked, and 

 to crush them with the teeth Holy race ! whose gods are born in 

 the kitchen garden !" Another writer observes, " Water is the natural 

 deity of Egypt, but parochially it is the bull at Memphis and the onion 

 at Pelusium. The Egyptians have dared to place the leek and the onion 

 among the gods of the sky ; while some worship the crocodile, the cat, 

 the dog, wolf, and monkey, others, onions and garlic!" The proli- 

 ferous bulb-bearing " tree " onion was introduced from Canada in 1820. 

 The green bulbs which replace the flowers are useful for pickling. 



" The strong smell and taste of onions, as of the garlic and the leek, 

 are due to a pungent volatile oil, rich in sulphur; but the quantity of 

 this oil is very minute. . . . Onions have a feeding value superior to 

 that of white turnips. Water amounts to 91 per cent., albuminoids, 

 1.5 per cent. ; mucilage, sugar, etc., 4.8 per cent. The nutrient ratio 

 is 1: 3.5, and the nutrient value lies between 6 and 7." 



WELSH ONION (Allium fistulosum, L.). The name " Welsh " is 

 probably a corruption of " Walische " and "Walche," meaning 

 " foreign," as the walnut was called Walischenote in the fourteenth 

 century. This species differs from the common onion in having the 

 dilated part of the flower-stem in the middle and not at the base ; more- 

 over the alternate stamens are " trifid." " Russian botanists have found 

 this species wild in Siberia towards the Altai Mountains, on the lake 

 Baikal in the land of the Kirghis. " J It is known as the Rock Onion or 

 Stone Leek in Russia. It has been cultivated in Great Britain since 

 1629. At the present day it appears to be only grown, as the young 



* Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 67. 

 t " The Story of the Nations," Chaldea. 



+ Ledebour, Flor. It ass. iv. p. 169; referred to by A. de Candolle, op. cit. 

 p. 68. 



Treasury of Botany. 



