[ 369 ] 



LXVIII. Account and Description of the different Varieties of 

 the Onion. By Mr. Charles Strachan, Gardener to 

 the Horticultural Society of London. 



Read March 2, 1819. 



avi n g been instructed by the Garden Committee, in the 

 last spring, to grow all the varieties of Onions which were 

 known in our gardens, in order to distinguish the characters 

 and properties of each sort, and to ascertain, if possible, the 

 true and proper names which should belong to them, I was 

 supplied with collections of seed from several of the principal 

 seedsmen in the metropolis, all of which were sown, without 

 regarding the repetition of the same names in the different 

 collections. Seeds of six French kinds were also obtained 

 for the Society from Paris, two of which appear not to have 

 been generally known here ; the other four kinds were si- 

 milar to what we before possessed. Of the English varieties 

 forty-three distinct parcels were sown ; in the various collec- 

 tions which were given to me, there were upwards of twenty 

 different names, purporting to be of as many different kinds. 

 It will appear that I consider these as reducible to a much 

 smaller number, since, even with the addition of foreign kinds, 

 I make only fourteen varieties ; having ascertained that se- 

 veral different names have hitherto been given to the same 

 sort It will be recollected, that the last season, by reason 

 of the drought and heat, was very injurious to Onions, on 



