30 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



against intestinal worms by many a good house- 

 wife at the present day, cloves of it being steeped 

 in whisky, and administered in the morning to 

 the patient fasting — a remedy probably founded 

 on the experiments made by Kosentein and 

 Tissot, who say that garlic " is capable of ex- 

 pelling worms, especially the tenia." From the 

 earliest ages it has been employed in medicine 

 as well as for culinary purposes. It is much 

 used in foreign cookery, especially in the south 

 of Europe, confirming what Haller says of it, 

 " that the inhabitants of all hot countries are 

 fond of garlic." In many parts of the Continent 

 the peasantry eat their brown bread with slices of 

 garlic, which imparts a flavour agreeable to them; 

 but in the midst of a garlic-eating people, they 

 are well off whose sense of smell is most slightly 

 developed. In Britain it is seldom employed as 

 a culinary ingredient, and then seldom served 

 up in a solid state, the cloves being put in a small 

 bag, and left in for a short time during cooking, 

 and then taken out when the necessary amount 

 of flavour has been communicated to the dish. 



The mode of propagation, season of 

 planting, subsequent culture, soil, manures, 

 diseases, insects, taking up the crop and 

 subsequent preservation, are all identically 

 the same as for shallots. 



Approved sorts and their qualities. — There 

 is one sort only cultivated in Britain as a 

 culinary plant — the common garlic. Phillips, 

 however, says, in " History of Culinary Vege- 

 tables," vol. ii. p. 26, " Besides the common gar- 

 lic, Allium sativum, the African garlic, Agracile, 

 is now cultivated by our gardeners. This," he 

 continues, " has been erroneously termed J amaica 

 garlic, from the circumstance of ' the seeds hav- 

 ing been sent from Jamaica to England.' " It is 

 not a native of the West Indies, but was brought 

 from Africa to Jamaica, and is the same de- 

 scribed by Pliny (book 19, chap. 6), which he 

 says grows larger than the other garlic. He 

 (Pliny) tells us that this kind of garlic was never 

 planted in level ground, but on little hillocks 

 like mole-hills, and that, as soon as they had 

 shown their leaves, the mould was taken away 

 from them; for the oftener they were laid bare, 

 the larger the heads would grow. We make 

 this reference, first, to show that what was 

 regarded as a new feature in shallot-culture 

 brought out by Knight, and published in the 

 " Horticultural Society's Transactions," vol. ii. 

 p. 98, was the usual mode of cultivating its near 

 kinsman, the garlic, in the days of Pliny ; and, 

 secondly, to say that of this Jamaica garlic of 

 large size we know nothing. Where attention is 

 paid to culture, the common garlic will attain a 

 size 7 4 inches in circumference each bulb ; where- 

 as, if grown, as it usually is, in the most negligent 

 manner possible, it does not attain half that size. 

 More attention is paid to its cultivation on the 

 Continent than with us, in consequence of its 

 being so much more in demand; and hence im- 

 ported bulbs are much larger than those of home 

 growth. In Italy it is known by the name Aglio ; 

 in Holland, Knoflock or Look; in France, Ail; 

 in Spain, Ajo ; in Germany, Knoblauch ; Alho 



in Portuguese, Tschesnok in Russian. In Wales, 

 most of the alliaceous esculents have been and 

 are more generally grown for domestic use than 

 in any other part of Britain. Worlidge, writing 

 early in the seventeenth century, speaking of 

 that principality, says, " I have seen the greater 

 part of a garden there stored with leeks, and a 

 part of the remainder with onions and garlic." 

 Twenty ordinary-sized bulbs weigh one lb. 



§ 3. — ROCAMBOLE. 



Natural history. — Rocambole, Allium Sco- 

 rodoprasum (from anopobov, garlic, and npao-ov, 

 leek, as if it combined the garlic and leek), L., 

 belongs to the same natural order, and class and 

 order in the Linnaean arrangement, as the last. 

 It is a native of Denmark and many other parts 

 of the north of Europe, and appears to have 

 been early introduced to Britain, as we find it 

 mentioned by Gerard in his " Herbal" as a 

 cultivated plant in 1596. 



Uses. — It is used for nearly the same culi- 

 nary purposes as the shallot and garlic, is milder 

 in flavour than either of them, but is employed 

 to a very limited extent even in families of the 

 highest order. 



Mode of propagation, fyc. — Its mode 

 of propagation is the same as that of 

 garlic and shallot ; only, as it sometimes 

 produces cauline bulbs — that is, small 

 bulbs upon the stem— they are, in cases of 

 a deficiency of underground bulbs, used 

 as a substitute both for use and planting. 

 The whole routine of culture, preserva- 

 tion, &c, is the same as for the two last. 



Varieties, &c. — There is only one sort culti- 

 vated in Britain. 



It is to be met with in Covent Garden market 

 in small quantities. In the Continental markets 

 it is rather more abundant, and is, as a conse- 

 quence, more employed in cooking. The French 

 call it Ail d'Espagna ; the Italians, Scorodopraso; 

 the Germans, Rocambollem ; in Holland, Wile 

 Knoftook ; in Spain, Especie de Ajo dulce. 



§ 4. — THE ONION. 



Natural history. — The Onion, Allium Cepa 

 (from Celtic, Cep, head), L., belongs to the same 

 natural order, and class and order in the Lin- 

 naean arrangement as the last three. Its native 

 country is as unknown as is the birthplace of 

 Homer. Spain has been named ; that is, how- 

 ever, highly improbable, as the plant has been 

 known and used as an article of food from the 

 remotest ages of antiquity. Of one thing we 

 are certain : it constituted an important article 

 of food long before the exodus of the Israelites 

 out of Egypt ; for among the complaints made to 

 Moses in the wilderness was, that they were de- 

 prived of the leeks, onions, and garlic, of which, 

 said the murmurers, " we remember we did eat 



