PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR SUBTERRANEAN PARTS. 67 



China,* and even in Japan.^ It was largely consumed 

 by the ancient Egyptians. The drawings on their 

 monuments often represent this species.^ Thus its 

 cultivation in Southern Asia and the eastern region of 

 the Mediterranean dates from a very early epoch. More- 

 over, the jphinese, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin 

 names have no apparent connection. From this last fact 

 we may deduce the hypothesis that its cultivation was 

 begun after the separation of the Indo-European nations, 

 the species being found ready to hand in different 

 countries at once. This, however, is not the present state 

 of things, for we hardly find even vague indications of 

 the wild state of A. Cepa. 1 have not discovered it 

 in European or Caucasian floras ; but Hasselquist * says, 

 " It grows in the plains near the sea in the environs of 

 Jericho." Dr. Wallich mentioned in his list of Indian 

 plants. No. 5072, specimens which he saw in districts of 

 Bengal, without mentioning whether they were cultivated. 

 This indication, however insufficient, together with the 

 antiquity of the Sanskrit and Hebrew names, and the 

 communication which is known to have existed between 

 the peoples of India and of Egypt, lead me to suppose 

 that this plant occupied a vast area in Western Asia, 

 extending perhaps from Palestine to India. Allied species, 

 sometimes mistaken for A. Cepa, exist in Siberia.^ 



The specimens collected by Anglo-Indian botanists, of 

 which Wallich gave the first idea, are now better known. 

 Stokes discovered Allium Cepa wild in Beluchistan. 

 He says, " wild on the Chehil Tun." Griffith brought 

 it from Afghanistan and Thomson from Lahore, to say 

 nothing of other collectors, who are not explicit as to the 

 wild or cultivated nature of their specimens.^ Boissier 

 possesses a wild specimen found in the mountainous regions 

 of the Khorassan. The umbels are smaller than in the 



■ Roxburgh, Fl. Ind., ii. ; Lonreiro, Fl. Cochin., p. 24&. 

 " Thnnberg, Fl. Jcup., p. 132. 



* Unger, ^flanzen d. AU. Mgypt., p. 42, figs. 22, 23, 24. 



* Haaselqnist, Voy. cmd Trav., p. 279. 



■ Ledebonr, Fl. Bossica, j\r. p. 169. 



* Aitchison, J. Catalogue of the Plants of the Punjab amd the Sindli, 

 in 8to, 1869, p. 19j Baker, in Journal of Sot., 1874, p. 295. 



