418 Description of the Hollow Leek. 



journeys through the principality, on my business as a nur- 

 sery and seedsman, I have seldom seen the Allium fistulosum 

 cultivated, or received an order for seed of that sort. Is 

 it not possible, that a confusion has taken place respecting 

 the names of the Scallion and the Welsh Onion; that the 

 latter ought to have been applied to the Hollow Leek, which I 

 have now described, and that the Scallion of the old English 

 gardeners is the Allium fistulosum of Linneus ? If this 

 conjecture should be correct, the lost Scallion of Miller 

 will prove to be the Hollow Leek. 



My acquaintance with Welsh gardening enables me to 

 add some observations on other plants of the genus Allium, 

 which will perhaps be interesting. The Leek, I need not 

 inform you, is a favourite vegetable all over Wales, and uni- 

 versally managed with care ; but the Welsh are of opinion 

 that they have a sort superior to the one grown in England, 

 and for that reason, as well as from economical motives, 

 they very generally save their own seed. I am inclined to 

 think, that this may be the same as the Scotch Leek, which 

 is said, by the gardeners round Edinburgh, to be superior to 

 the London one, because it is hardier, grows larger, and has 

 the white part or stem longer. 



To secure, as much as possible, a succession of their fa- 

 vourite vegetable throughout the year, the Welsh also plant 

 the Allium Ampeloprasum, which they call Perennial Sweet 

 Leek ; they manage it, in every respect, in the same way, 

 and for the same purposes, as they do the Hollow Leek, and 

 I think it far superior to it, as a culinary vegetable. The 

 bulbs of it, likewise, form a handsome pickle, and, by many, 

 are much relished in that state. I have observed, that it is 



