306 On the Cultivation of the Under-ground Onion. 



practice to plant on the shortest day, and take up on the 

 longest. The smallest Onions used for planting swell and be- 

 come very fine and large, as well as yield offsets ; the middle- 

 sized and larger bulbs produce great clusters.* 



This has been called the Egyptian Onion, under the im- 

 pression that it was originally introduced from Egypt, when 

 our army was in that country ; but as I grew it at Messrs. 

 Drivers' nursery in 1796, two years before the date of the 

 battle of the Nile, this supposition must be erroneous. By 

 some it is called the Potatoe Onion. A particular account 

 of its first cultivation in Scotland will be found in the 

 Transactions of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. ij' 



I have never observed it to throw up flower-stems, the 

 abundant produce of the root rendering the more usual mode 

 of increase by seed unnecessary. 



I remaiu, Sir, 



Your very obedient Servant, 



John Maher. 



Arundel Castle, Oct. 5, 1818. 



* Mr. George Dymond, of Exeter, one of the Corresponding Members of the 

 Horticultural Society, has communicated the following circumstances, relating to 

 this Onion. It has been known in Devonshire for about twenty years, and does not 

 seem to be recollected in that county for a longer period. The bulbs are commonly 

 planted in rows, twelve inches apart, and six inches from each other, in the row, 

 being earthed up with the hoe, as they grow ; the smaller ones answer better for 

 planting than the largest, yielding a greater increase. It is found that these Onions 

 do not keep well later than the beginning of February. 



t Vol. i. page 343. 



