THE CHIVE. 



2b7 



main till April or May, when they are trans- 

 planted to a rich soil. 



Onions are considered wholesome under any 

 form ; but they become more succulent and mild 

 after having undergone culinary preparation. 



The Welsh Onion, or Ciboule (allium fistulo- 

 sum), is originally from Siberia. It is a hardy 

 plant, and strong in flavour, approaching more 

 nearly to garlic than onion. This species does 

 not form a bulb. The cultivation of the ciboule 

 has been known in England since the early part 

 of the seventeenth century ; how much earlier 

 there are now no means of knowing. It is much 

 less cultivated in the present day than it was in 

 former times, when broths and pottages, seasoned 

 with the green tops of the onion tube, were more 

 in fashion. It is now only occasionally raised 

 for a spring crop. For this purpose the seed is 

 sown at the end of July or August ; in a fort- 

 night the plants usually appear above ground ; 

 but in October their leaves wither, and the 

 ground appears quite bare. In the beginning of 

 the ensuing year, however, they become reno- 

 vated, and in March are fit for drawing to be 

 used as onions. The scalien is another name 

 given to long-necked onions, which produce 

 leaves abundantly, but do not bulb. 



The Tree, or bulb-bearing Onion (allium eepa, 

 var. viviparum), is a singular variety, which has 

 probably been produced by climate. It runs 

 with a strong stem, about two feet in height, on 

 the top of which the flowers are produced in a 

 manner similar to the rest of the species; but 

 instead of being succeeded by capsules containing 

 seeds, the germs swell, and towards the end of 

 the season a' crop of bulbs is obtained from the 

 top of the stalk, and which, in a natural state, 

 as soon as they drop off and fall to the ground, 

 begin to put out roots and vegetate. This va- 

 riety is more an object of curiosity than of use, 

 though we learn that in some parts of Wales 

 these bulbs are planted, and produce ground- 

 onions of a considerable size, while the stem sup- 

 plies a succession of bulbs for the next year's 

 planting. 



This variety is said to have been introduced 

 here from Canada; the French call it I'ognon 

 d'Egypte; there is no proof, however, of its 

 being a native of the country which its name 

 would indicate, while the probability is greatly 

 to the contrary. It is not in such a climate, but 

 in cold and wet countries, that seminal plants are 

 changed to viviparous. The same species of 

 grass which has perfect seeds upon warm and dry 

 grounds, bears little plants in the spike when 

 grown upon the cold and humid mountain top ; 

 and the corn, which in a dry season remains firm 

 and without any signs of vegetation in the grain, 

 sprouts in the ear, and becomes green and matted 

 in the shock, when the weather is rainy; this 

 efiijct being produced much more freauently in 



the northern parts of the country than in the 

 south. It is by no means improbable that, in 

 the humid atmosphere of the Hebrides, both 

 grain and pulse would become viviparous, if they 

 were not taken to the barn and dried by artifi- 

 cial means. By analogy drawn from facts it is 

 therefore probable that the tree-onion is not only 

 from Canada, but that it is not indigenous there, 

 being merely the common onion introduced from 

 France by the colonists, and changed to the vi- 

 viparous form by the clhnate. 



The Ground, or Potatoe Onion, is another cu- 

 rious variety. This multiplies itself in an oppo- 

 site direction to that of the tree-onion, producing, 

 by the formation of young bulbs on the parent 

 root, an ample crop below the surface. This 

 plant has also been described as being a native of 

 Egypt, or at least as having been brought from 

 that country by the British army in the early 

 part of the present century. It must be admit- 

 ted that a plant which bears an additional num- 

 ber of bulbs is more likely to be a native of a dry 

 and warm climate than a plant which is vivipa- 

 rous. The time of the introduction of the po- 

 tatoe-onion has, however, been erroneously as- 

 signed, since it was known and cultivated in the 

 south and west of England some years prior to 

 the Egyptian expedition. If it be a native of 

 Egypt, or of any other warm country, it is, in- 

 deed, a hardy one, since it bears the alteration of 

 the seasons, and resists the attacks of insects much 

 better, it is said, than the common onion. 



The bulbs are planted in the middle of winter ; 

 as the tops appear they are usually earthed up 

 like potatoes, and by the middle of summer the 

 new crop is ready for removing. The size and 

 number of the new bulbs depend very much on 

 the size of those which have been planted ; but 

 they always yield a proportionately large pro- 

 duce. 



Mr Wedgewood employs another method. He 

 says, when the onions have shot out their leaves 

 to their fuU size, and when they begin to get a 

 little brown at the top, he clears away all the 

 soil from the bulb down to the ring from whence 

 proceed the fibres of the roots, and thus forms a 

 basin round each bulb, which catches the rain, 

 and serves as a receptacle for the water from the 

 watering pots. The old bulbs then immediately 

 begin to form new ones ; and if they are kept 

 properly moist, and the ground good, the clusters 

 will be very large and numerous ; besides, bulb? 

 grown thus above ground are much sounder than 

 those grown below, and will keep much better. 



The Chive (allium Schcmvoprasum), is the 

 smallest, though one of the finest flavoured of 

 the genus. It is a hardy perennial plant, an in- 

 habitant of Siberia, and said to be a native of 

 Britain, though rarely found growing in an un- 

 cultivated state. The bulbs are very small, con- 

 nected in clusters of an elongated fonn, and the 



