PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SUBTERRANEAN PARTS. 69 



took its name from Ascalon, in Judaea; but Dr. Foiirnier^ 

 thinks that the Latin author mistook the meaning of the 

 word Ashdonion of Theophrastus. However this may- 

 be, the word has been retained in modern languages under 

 the form oiechalote in French, chalote in Spanish, scalogno 

 in Italian, Aschalvxh or Esddauch in German. 



In 1855 I had spoken of the species as follows : ^ 

 "According: to Roxburirh,^ Allium ascalonicum is 

 much cultivated in India. The Sanskrit name pulandu 

 is attributed to it, a word nearly identical with palandu, 

 attributed to A. Cepa} Evidently the distinction be- 

 tween the two species is not clear in Indian or Anglo- 

 Indian works. 



" Loureiro says he saw Allium asccdonicum cul- 

 tivated in Cochin-China,^ but he does not mention 

 China, and Thunberg does not indicate this species in 

 Japan. Its cultivation, therefore, is not universal in the 

 east of Asia. This fact, and the doubt al)Out the Sanskrit 

 name, lead me to think that it is not ancient in Southern 

 Asia. Neither, in spite of the name of the species, am I 

 convinced that it existed in Western Asia. Rauwolf, 

 Forskal, and Delile do not mention it in Siberia, in Arabia, 

 or in Eg3^pt. Linnreus ^ mentions Hasselquist as having 

 found the species in Palestine. Unfortunately, he gives 

 no details about the locality, nor about its wild condition. 

 In the Travels of Hasselquist '^ I find a Cepa montana 

 mentioned as OTOwino^ on Mount Tabor and on a neighbour- 

 ing mountain, but there is nothing to prove that it was 

 this species. In his article on the onions and garlics of 

 the Hebrews he mentions only Allium, Cepa, then A. 

 'porruiin and A. sativum. Sibthorp did not find it in 

 Greece, and Fraas ^ does not mention it as now cultivated 



' He will treat of tliis in a publication entitled Cibaria, which will 

 shortly appear. 



^ Ge'og. Bot. Raisonnee, p. 829. 



Roxburgh, Fl. Ind.; edit. 1S32, vol. ii. p. 142. 



* Piddington, Index. 



* Loureiro, Fl. Cochin., p. 251. 



Linnaeus, Species, p. 429. 



^ Hasselqiiis", Voy. and Trav., 17C6, pp. 281, 282. 



Sibthorp, Prodr. Fraas, S'jn. Fl. Class., p. 291. 



