454 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



them is not inferior to that made from Chicory, Sweet Acorns, 

 Astragalus baticus, and other substitutes for Coffee. 



Long-fruited Green Okra. Stem short, seldom exceeding 

 20 in. in height ; leaves very deeply cut ; seed-vessels 6 to 8 in. 

 long, slender, long, pointed, and about I in. in diameter. This is 

 the kind most commonly cultivated. There is a sub-variety in 

 which the seed-vessels are pendent 



Dwarf Prolific Okra. Much grown in America, it is a small- 

 fruited sub-variety of the preceding one, and both early and 

 productive. 



Round-fruited Okra. Seed-vessels short and thick, being 

 about 2 in. long, and nearly 2 in. in diameter, and blunt at the ends 

 rather than pointed. This variety is dwarfer and earlier than the 

 preceding kind. 



Early Sultani Okra. Produces a number of short, thick fruit, 

 very like those of the preceding. 



White Velvet Okra. The American variety known by this 

 name is distinguished by its fruit, which is white, long, and 

 fairly large. 



ONION 



A Ilium Cepa, L. Liliacece. 



French, Ognon. German, Zwiebel. Flemish, Ajuin. Dutch, Uijen. Danish, Rodlog. 

 Italian, Cipolla. Spanish, Cebolla. Portuguese, Cebola. 



Native of Central or Western Asia. Biennial, sometimes 

 perennial. The original native country of the Onion is not known 

 with certainty ; within the last few years, however, M. Regel, jun., 

 discovered, south of Kouldja, in Turkestan, a plant which had every 

 appearance of being the wild form of A Ilium Cepa, and we believe 

 the same plant has also been found on the Himalayas. 



The Onion has no stem, or rather the stem is reduced to a 

 mere plate, from which issue, on the lower side, numerous white, 

 thick, simple roots, and on the upper side leaves, the fleshy, swollen, 

 and overlapping bases of which form the bulb of the Onion. The 

 form, colour, and size of the bulb are very much varied in different 

 varieties of the plant. The free portion of the leaves is elongated, 

 hollow, and tapering into a point at the end. The flower-stems, 

 which are very much longer than the leaves, are erect, hollow, 

 and swollen in the lower part for about one-third of their length. 

 The flowers, which are white or lilac, are severally borne on very 

 slender stalks, and are collected in a very dense spherical head 

 on the top of the flower-stem. Sometimes, instead of flowers, a 

 head of small bulbs is produced. This may occur exceptionally 

 in any of the varieties, but is an invariable characteristic of the 

 Tree Onion, which is thence named the Bulbiferous Onion. The 



