BOOK 1. 



ALLIACEOUS PLANTS. 



639 



SUBSECT. 7. Herb-Patience, or Patience-Dock. Rumex Patientia, L. (Slackw. 349. ) 

 Hex, Dig. L. and Polygone<e, J. Rhubarbe des Moines, Fr. ; Gartenampfer, Ger. ; 

 and Romice, Ital. 



3807. The herb-patience is a hardy perennial plant, a native of Italy, introduced in 

 1573. The leaves are broad, long, and acute-pointed, on reddish foot-stalks; the stems, 

 where allowed to spring up, rise to the height of four or five feet. It produces its 

 whitish-green flowers in June and July. 



3808. Use. " In old times, garden-patience was much cultivated as a spinage. It 

 is now very much neglected, partly perhaps on account of the proper mode of using it 

 not being generally known. The leaves rise early in the spring ; they are to be cut 

 while tender, and about a fourth part of common sorrel is to be mixed with them. In 

 this way patience-dock is much used in Sweden, and may be safely recommended as 

 forming an excellent spinage dish." (Neill.) 



3809. Culture. Garden-patience is easily raised from seeds, which may be sown in lines in the manner 

 of common spinage, or white beet, and thinned out and treated afterwards like the latter plant. If the 

 plants be regularly cut over two or three times in the season, they continue in a healthy productive state 

 for several years. 



SECT. V. Alliaceous Plants. 

 3810. The alliaceous esculents are of great antiquity and universal cultivation. 



No 



description of useful British garden is without the onion ; and few in other parts of the 

 world, without that bulb, or garlic. They require a rich, and rather strong soil, and 

 warm climate, thriving better in Spain and France than in England. The onion and 

 leek crops may occupy a twentieth of the open compartments in most kitchen-gardens j 

 and a bed of five or seven square yards in those of the cottager. 



SUBSECT. 1. Onion. Allium Cepa, L. Hexandria Monogynia, L. and Atyhodelete, J. 

 Oignon, Fr. ; Zwiebel, Ger. ; and Cipola, Ital. 



381 1. The common bulbous onion is a biennial plant, supposed to be a native of Spain ; 

 though as Neill observes, " neither the native country, nor the date of its introduction 

 into this island, are correctly known." It is distinguished from other alliaceous plants 

 by its large fistular leaves, swelling stalk, coated bulbous root, and large globular head 

 of flowers, which expand the second year in June and July. 



3812. Use. The use of the onion, in its different stages of growth, when young, in 

 salads, and when bulbing and mature, in soups and stews, is familiar to every class of 

 society in Europe ; and for these purposes has been held in high estimation from time 

 immemorial. 



3813. The varieties ascertained to be best deserving of culture are as follows : 



and two-bladed are reckoned the best for pickling. The potatoe-onion is planted in some places as an 

 auxiliary crop, but is considered inferior to the others in flavor : the Welsh onion is sometimes sown 

 for early spring-drawing. 



3815. Sott. The onion, " to attain a good size, requires rich mellow ground on a dry sub-soil. If the 

 soil be poor or exhausted, recruit it with a compost of fresh loam and well consumed dung, avoiding to 

 use stable-dung in a rank unreduced state. Turn in the manure to a moderate depth ; and in digging 

 the ground, let it be broken fine. Grow picklers in poor light ground, to keep them small." The mar- 

 ket-gardeners at Hexham sow their onion-seed on the same ground for twenty or more years in succes- 

 sion, but annually manure the soil. After digging and levelling the ground, the manure, in a very 

 rotten state, is spread upon it, the onion-seed sown upon the manure, and covered with earth from the 

 alleys, and the crops are abundant and excellent in quality. (Hort. Trans, i. 121.) 



