70 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



in tliat country. According to Koch/ it is naturalized 

 among the vines near Fiume. However, Viviani ^ only 

 speaks of it as a cultivated plant in Dalmatia. 



"From all these facts I am led to believe that 

 Allium ascalonicv/m is not a species. It is enough to 

 render its primitive existence doubtful, to remark : (1) 

 that Theophrastus and ancient writers in general have 

 spoken of it as a form of the AlUuTn Gepa, having the 

 same importance as the varieties cultivated in Greece, 

 Thrace, and elsewhere ; (2) that its existence in a wild 

 state cannot be proved ; (3) that it is little cultivated, 

 or not all, in the countries where it is supposed to have 

 had its origin, as. in Syria, Egypt, and Greece ; (4) that 

 it is commonly without flowers, whence the name of Gepa 

 sterilis given by Bauhin, and the number of its bulbs is 

 an allied fact ; (5) when it does flower, the organs of the 

 flower are similar to those of A. Gepa, or at least no 

 difference has been hitherto discovered, and according to 

 Koch * the only difference in the whole plant is that the 

 stalk and leaves are less swelled, although fistulous." 



Such was formerly my opinion.* The facts published 

 since 1855 do not destroy my doubts, but, on the contrary, 

 justify them. , Regel, in 1875, in his monograph of the 

 genus Allium, declares he has only seen the shallot as a 

 cultivated species. Aucher Eloy has distributed a plant 

 from Asia Minor under the name of A. ascalowicwm, but 

 judging from my specimen this is certainly not the 

 species. Boissier tells me that he has never seen A. 

 ascalonicmn in the East, and it is not in his herbarium. 

 The plant from the Morea which bears this name in the 

 flora of Bory and Chaubard is quite a different species, 

 which he has named A. gomphrenoides. Baker,^ in his 

 review of the Alliums of India, China, and Japan, 

 mentions A. ascalov/icum in districts of Bengal and of 

 the Punjab, from specimens of Griffith and Aitchison; 

 but he adds, "They are probably cultivated plants." 



' Koch, 8yn. Fl. Germ., 2nd edit;, p. 833. 



' Viviani, Fl. Dalmat., p, 138. » Kooli, Syn. M. Qerm, 



• A. de CandoUe, Q^ogr. Bot. Eaisonmie, p. 829. 



• Baker, in Journ. of Bot., 1874, p. 295. 



