GARLIC. 



26a 



cultivated in the Polynesian islands. The root 

 requires to be planted in a hard soil, and kept 

 covered with water from nine to fifteen months, 

 when it is fit to eat, though it increases in size 

 and excellence for two years more. In the natu- 

 ral state both the foliage and roots of taro have 

 all the pungent acrid qualities that mark the 

 genus to which the plant belongs ; but these are 

 so dissipated by cooking, whether baking or boil- 

 ing, that they become mild and palatalDle, with 

 no peculiar flavour more than belongs to good 

 bread. The islanders bake the root in the na- 

 tive ovens in the same way as the bread fmit, 

 and then beat the paste into a mass like dough, 

 called poe. It is eaten by thrusting the fore- 

 finger of the right hand into the mass, and se- 

 curing as much as will adhere to it, passing it 

 into the mouth with a hasty revolving motion 

 of the hand and finger. 



Garlic C allium sativum J, Several bulbous 

 rooted plants belonging to the natural order lili- 

 acew, of which garlic is the type, have a peculiar 

 pungency, which habit has rendered grat«ful as 

 an article of food, or rather as an addition to other 

 more insipid viands. Garlic belongs to the class 

 fiexandria, and order monogynia of Linnaeus. 

 The root is perennial, composed of several bulbs, 



109. 



enveloped in a common membrane, and from its 

 base sends off many long white fibres. The 

 stem is simple, and rises about a foot and a half 

 in height ; the leaves at the root are numerous, 

 on the stem few ; they are all long, flat, gi-ass- 

 like. The flowers of all the plants of this spe- 

 cies arise between the small bulbs, or rocamboles, 

 which terminate the stem in a cluster. Each 

 flower is very small, whitish, and commonly 

 abortive. The calyx is a spatha common to all 

 the florets and bulbs ; it is withered, and of a 

 roundish shape. The corolla consists of six ob- 



long petals. The filaments are six, tapering al- 

 ternately, trifid, shorter than the corolla, and 

 furnished with oblong erect antherse. The ger- 

 men is placed above the insertion of the corolla, 

 short, angular, and supports a simple style, ter- 

 minated by an acute stigma. The capsule is 

 short, broad, trilobed, three-eelled, three-valved, 

 and contains roundish seeds. It flowers in July. 



This species of garlic, according to Linnsus, 

 grows spontaneously in Sicily ; but as it is much 

 used both for culinary and medicinal purposes, 

 it has been long very generally cultivated in gar- 

 dens. It shows the same propensity to forming 

 bulbs, instead of flowers, as the rocambole garlie, 

 which it also resembles in other respects. Every 

 part of the plant, but especially the root, has a 

 pungent acrimonious taste, and a peculiar rather 

 offensive odour. This odour is extremely pene- 

 trating and diffusive, for on the root being taken 

 into the stomach, the aUiaceoua scent impreg- 

 nates the whole system, and is discoverable in 

 the various excretions. This volatile matter is, 

 in part at least, an essential oil, which may be 

 obtained in distillation in the ordinary manner ; 

 and like the oils of many of the siliquose plants, 

 sinks in water. Applied to the skin, garlic has 

 the same effects as a blister. This plant was first 

 cultivated in England in 1648. It is a hardy 

 plant, and thrives best in a rich dry soil. Tliera 

 are three species of garlic which grow wild in 

 Britain, the sand, the crow, and the leek garlic. 

 The wild garlic of Kamchatka ( allium vrsinum) 

 is eagerly gathered by the natives, and used with 

 their food, and also as a medicine for the cure of 

 scurvy. 



TuE Onion (allium cepa). This is a biennial 

 herbaceous plant, with long tubulated leaves, a 

 swelling pithy stalk, thicker in the middle than 

 at either end. The flowers are in the form of a 

 large spherical head, which blow out the second 

 summer after sowing. The root is in form of a 

 series of concentric coats, varying in size accord- 

 ing to the soil and climate, and also in colour, 

 fi'om a wine-red to white. The peculiar flavour 

 is less intense or acrid than that of the garlic, 

 and there is also more of a mucilaginous nutri- 

 tive substance in the bulb. The flavour also 

 varies much, according to the size of the bulb, 

 the small reddish onions having much more pun- 

 gency than the larger ones. There are at least 

 twenty varieties of this plant. 



The onion was known and cultivated at a very 

 early period in Britain. It is not supposed that 

 any variety of it is indigenous, since the large 

 and mild roots which are imported from warmer 

 climates deteriorate both in size and sweetness 

 after having been cultivated a few years in this 

 climate. The onion called the Strasburgh, and 

 the varieties which have been obtained from it 

 in this country, appear to be the most natural- 

 ized, as they are the hardiest which are grown. 

 2 I. 



