16 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



different varieties of this root, says he could 

 not discover that they ever grew wild.* 



There is no plant that has been so subject 

 to the caprice of fashion, and the disputes 

 of physicians, as the onion. It has been the 

 common seasoning for meats with most na- 

 tions from the earliest time to the present ; 

 from the table of Majesty, to that of the 

 peasant. 



It was one of the Egyptian divinities, who 

 used to swear by the onion, solemnly calling 

 it to witness their oath as a god. 



Among the complaints which the Israelites 

 made to Moses, when in the wilderness, was 

 that of being deprived of leeks, onions, and 

 garlick, of which, said the murmurers, "we 

 remember we did eat in Egypt freely-f*." 



A friend who has travelled in that country 

 says, we should not condemn the taste of 

 these sons of Abraham, if we knew how 

 superior and sweet the onions of Egypt are 

 in comparison with those of Europe. 



Theophrastus, who died in his 107th year, 

 complaining of the shortness of life, wrote 

 on the onion, about 200 years before the 

 birth of Christ; and Palladius, a Greek phy- 



* Book xx. chap. 5. f Numb. chap. xi. v. 5. 



