ONION. 17 



sician, who also wrote on this acrid root, 

 recommends it to be sown with savory. 

 Pliny follows the same opinion, and says, 

 onions prosper better when savory is sown 

 with them. It appears to have been a study 

 with the ancients to find what plants thrived 

 well together, or, according to their belief, 

 what herbs had a sympathy with, or anti- 

 pathy to each other. We find that all the 

 plants which they recommended to be sown 

 or planted together, are of very opposite na- 

 tures ; and there may be more reason in the 

 system pursued by the ancients than is ge- 

 nerally allowed ; for plants drawing the same 

 juice from the earth must naturally weaken 

 each other ; whereas those requiring differ- 

 ent nutriment may, in some degree, assist 

 each other, each feeding on juices that are 

 prejudicial to plants of the other species. 

 Our husbandmen acknowledge the principle, 

 by changing their crops. Lord Bacon carried 

 this opinion so far as to say, " the rose will be 

 the sweeter, if planted in a bed of onions." 



The Greeks and Romans named the diffe- 

 rent kinds of onions after the countries or 

 cities from whence they procured them ; as 

 the Scalions, Sardian, Samothracian, Alsiden, 

 Setanian, Ascasta, African, Tusculan, and 



VOL. II. C 



