PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SUBTERRANEAN PARTS. 65 



There is a Sanskrit name, mahoushouda^ become 

 loshoun in Bengali, and to which appears to be related 

 the Hebrew name sch.oum or schuinin,'^ which has pro- 

 duced the Arab thaurn or toum. The Basque name bara- 

 tchoui^ is thought by de Charencey ^ to be allied with 

 Aryan names. In support of his hypothesis I may 

 add that the Berber name, tiskert, is quite different, and 

 that consequently the Iberians seem to have received the 

 plant and its name rather from the Aryans than from 

 their probable ancestors of Northern Africa. The Lettons 

 call it A;i2^Zo/J»;.:?,theEsthonians krunslauk, whence probably 

 the German Knoblauch. The ancient Greek name appears 

 to have been scorodon, in modern Greek scordon. The 

 names given by the Slavs of Illyria are bill and cesan. 

 The Bretons say qvAnen,^ the Welsh craf, cenhinnen, or 

 garlleg, whence the English garlic. The Latin allium 

 has passed into the languages of Latin origin.^ This 

 great diversity of names intimates a long acquaintance 

 with the plant, and even an ancient cultivation in 

 Western Asia and in Europe. On the other hand, if the 

 species has existed only in the land of the Kirghis, where 

 it is now found, the Aryans might have cultivated it and 

 carried it into India and Europe ; but this does not 

 explain the existence of so many Keltic, Slav, Greek, 

 and Latin names which differ from the Sanskrit. To 

 explain this diversity, we must suppose that its original 

 abode extended farther to the west than that known at 

 the present day, an extension anterior to the migrations 

 of the Aryans. 



If the genus Allium were once made, as a whole, the 

 object of such a serious study as that of Gay on some 



* Piddington, Index, 



• Hiller, Hierophyton ; Rosenmuller, Bihl. Altert'hum, voL ir. 



• De Charencey, Actes de la Hoc. Phil., 1st March, 1869. 



* Davies, Welsh Botanolony. 



' All these common names are found in my dictionary compiled by 

 Moritzi from floras. I could have quoted a larger nuuiber, and men- 

 tioned the probable etymologies, as given by philologists — Hehn, for 

 instance, in his Kulturpflanzen atts Asien, p. 171 and following; but 

 this is not necessary to show its origin and. early cultivation in several 

 different countries. 



