72 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



from Dobrutscha, sent by the botanist Sintcnis. The 

 natural habitat of the species borders, therefore, on that 

 of Allium sativum., or else an attentive study of all 

 these forms will show that a single species, comprising 

 several varieties, extends over a great part of Europe and 

 the bordering countries of Asia. 



The cultivation of this species of onion docs not 

 appear to be of ancient date. It is not mentioned by 

 Greek and Roman authors, nor in the list of plants 

 recommended by Charlemagne to the intendants of his 

 gardens.^ Neither does Olivier de Serres speak of it. 

 We can only give a small number of original common 

 names among ancient peoples. The most distinctive 

 are in the North. Shoiiug in Denmark, keipe and 

 rachenholl in Sweden.^ liockoiholle, whence comes the 

 French name, is German. It has not the meaninir oiven 

 by Littre. Its etymology is Bolle, onion, growing among 

 the rocks, Rochen.^ 



Chives — Allium schccnoprasum, Linnneus. 



This species occu])ies an extensive area in the 

 northern hemisphere. It is found all over Europe, from 

 Corsica and Greece to the south of Sweden, in Siberia 

 as far as Kamtschatka, and also in Korth America, but 

 only near the Lakes Huron and Superior and further 

 north ^ — a remarkable circumstance, considering its Euro- 

 pean habitat. Tlie variety found in the Alps is the 

 nearest to the cultivated form.^ 



The ancient Greeks and Romans must certainly have 

 known the species, since it is wild in Italy and Greece. 

 Targioni believes it to be the Scorodon schiston of 

 Theophrastus ; but we are dealing with words without 

 descriptions, and authors whose specialty is the inter- 

 pretation of Greek text, like Fraas and Lenz, are prudent 

 enouoh to affirm nothin^^ If the ancient names are 

 doubtful, the fact of the cultivation of the plant at this 

 epoch is yet more so. It is possible that the custom of 

 gathering it in the fields existed. 



* Le Grand d'Aussy, Histoire de la Tie des Franrais, vol. i. p. 122. 

 ' Nemnich, PolygJott. Lexicon, p. 187. ' Ibid. 



* Asx Gray, Botany of the Northern Siafcf^, edit. 5, p. 534. 

 ' De CaudoUe, Flo7-e Fravgaise, iv. p. 227. 



