32 STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



btdbs instead of bearing flowers and seed." It is a peculiarity of A. canadense that it often 

 bears a head of bulbs in the place of flowers; its flavor is very strong; it is found through- 

 out northern United States and Canada. Mueller ' says its top bulbs are much sought 

 for pickles of superior flavor. Brown ^ says its roots are eaten by some Indians. In 

 1674, when Marquette ' and his party journeyed from Green Bay to the present site of 

 Chicago, these onions formed almost the entire source of food. The Ivmibermen of Maine 

 often used the plant in their broths for flavoring. On the East Branch of the Penobscot, 

 these onions occur in abundance and are bulb-producing on their stalks. They grow in 

 the clefts of ledges and even with the scant soil attain a foot in height. In the lack of 

 definite information, it may be allowable to suggest that the tree onion may be a hybrid 

 variety from this wild species, or possibly the wild species improved by cultivation. The 

 name, Egyptian onion, is against this surmise, while, on the other hand, its apparent 

 origination in Canada is in its favor, as is also the appearance of the growing plants. 



A. cepa Linn, onion. 



Persia and Beluchistan. The onion has been known and cultivated as an article 

 of food from the earliest period of history. Its native country is unknown. At the 

 present time it is no longer foimd growing wild, but all authors ascribe to it an eastern 

 origin. Perhaps it is indigenous from Palestine to India, whence it has extended to China, 

 Cochin China, Japan, Europe, North and South Africa and America. It is mentioned 

 in the Bible as one of the things for which the Israelites longed in the wilderness and com- 

 plained about to Moses. Herodotus says, in his time there was an inscription on the 

 Great Pyramid stating the simi expended for onions, radishes and garlic, which had been 

 consumed by the laborers during the progress of its erection, as 1600 talents. A variety 

 was cultivated, so excellent that it received worship as a divinity, to the great amusement 

 of the Romans, if Juvenal * is to be trusted. Onions were prohibited to the Egyptian 

 priests, who abstained from most kinds of pulse, but they were not excluded from the 

 altars of the gods. Wilkinson ^ says paintings frequently show a priest holding them in 

 his hand, or covering an altar with a bundle of their leaves and roots. They were intro- 

 duced at private as well as public festivals and brought to table. The onions of Egjrpt 

 were mild and of an excellent flavor and were eaten raw as well as cooked by persons of 

 all classes. 



Hippocrates* says that onions were commonly eaten 430 B. C. Theophrastus,' 322 



B. C, names a number of varieties, the Sardian, Cnidian, Samothracian and Setanison, 

 all named from the places where grown. Dioscorides,* 60 A. D., speaks of the onion as 

 long or round, yellow or white. Colimiella,' 42 A. D., speaks of the Marsicam, which 



Mueller, F. Sel. Pis. 28 B. 1891. 

 Brown, R. Card. Chron. 1320. 1868. 

 ' Case Bol. Index 34. 1880. 



De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 828. 1855. 



Wilkinson, J. G. Anc. Egypt, i : 168. 1854. 



Hippocrates Opera Comarius Ed. 113. 1546. 



' Theophrastus Hist. PI. Bodaeus Ed. 761, 785. 1644. 



Dioscorides Ruellius Ed. 135. 1529. 

 Columella lib. 12, c. 10. 



