ALLIACEOUS PLANTS —GARLIC. 



29 



about three inches and a half in diameter, and 

 the latter about an inch more. The Allium 

 ascalonicum, var. majus of botanists, is, we be- 

 lieve, identical with the Russian. A long-keeping 

 variety — said to keep for two years, is spoken of. 

 We have had this sort, at least one so called, but 

 could never see any difference in it, either as to 

 keeping, or in size or form, from the Russian, 

 with which we believe it to be identical. 



Insects and diseases. — The principal, if not 

 the only, disease the shallot is liable to is the 

 attack of a maggot, generally found under 

 the bulb, which soon becomes covered with 

 a mouldy appearance, and speedily after- 

 wards rots away. This is probably not diffe- 

 rent from Anthomyia ceparmn, Meig., the com- 

 mon onion-fly, which see. Planting on the 

 surface, or indeed on raised ridges, as recom- 

 mended by Knight, had for its chief object the 

 prevention of this disease. Imbedding the 

 bulbs at planting in finely-sifted charcoal has 

 also been recommended. In our present state 

 of information regarding the habits of this insect, 

 there can be no doubt that collecting the plants 

 xipon their indicating the first symptoms of the 

 disease, and burning them, will have the effect 

 of greatly reducing the number of insects in 

 succeeding years. Spirits of tar dug into the 

 ground at planting, and salt, soot, nitrate of 

 soda, watering with lime-water, as soon as the 

 leaves begin to flag during the heat of the sun, 

 which is indicative of the first attack, as well as 

 xirine and guano water copiously applied, have 

 all in their turn been repeatedly tried ; and 

 wherever a marked benefit was discovered, it 

 in all cases depended on the remedies being 

 applied upon the very first appearance of the 

 disease. — ( Vide art. Onion.) 



Botrytis destructor (Berk) makes its first ap- 

 pearance as a white mould or mildew upon 

 various kinds of Alliums, and often destroys the 

 whole crop, particularly shallots. On its first 

 appearance, the infected leaves should be cut 

 off and burned : all other attempts at destroying 

 it in a more perfect state appear to be hopeless. 



General Remarks. — Shallots, till within these 

 few years, were little cultivated in Scotland, 

 excepting in some of the first-rate gardens. In 

 the markets, they were unknown, the onion and 

 the leek being the only alliaceous esculents in 

 demand. They have only to a limited extent 

 found their way into the gardens of cottagers 

 and small families even in England, a circum- 

 stance to be regretted, as they are exceedingly 

 wholesome, communicating an agreeable flavour 

 to many of our commonest dishes : and the 

 supply for a family can be grown on a very 

 limited extent of ground compared with the 

 onion or the leek. All over Europe they are 

 much more extensively cultivated and esteemed, 

 and in some countries rank higher than the 

 onion, their near ally. In France they are called 

 Echalotte or Ail sterile ; in Germany, Schalotte 

 or Aschlauch ; in Holland, Chalot or Sjalotte ; 

 in Italy, Scalogni or Cipolle malige ; in Spain, 

 Escalonia or Chalote; in Denmark, Scalotlogen ; 

 in Sweden, Chalottenlok. 



A curious instance of the transmutation of 

 the shallot into the onion has recently occurred 

 VOL. II. 



in the grounds of Messrs Hardy and Sons, Mal- 

 don, Essex. " The transmuted shallots, or rather 

 onions, raised by us from shallot-seed, did not 

 produce potato-onions, as it was presumed they 

 might, but numerous heads of seed varying from 

 ten to twenty from a single bulb. They cer- 

 tainly possess the qualities of both onions and 

 shallots in flavour, the size of the onions, and 

 the fact of their being divisable like shallots; the 

 blade is very narrow, partaking of both species ; 

 the seed is small." — Messrs Hardy s Letter. 

 Plants have been raised from this transmuta- 

 tion, and grown in the garden of the Horticul- 

 tural Society of London, and the following are 

 the results, as given in the Journal of that 

 Society: — "The seed was sown on the 20th 

 March, and produced a mixed race, varying in 

 size, form, and colour. Some were regularly 

 formed by concentric layers like an onion. 

 Sometimes the formation consists of two closely 

 conjoined, compressed, but separate bulbs, and 

 frequently clusters are produced very like shal- 

 lots. The colour, in some, approaches that of 

 the silver-skinned onion, in others the blood-red, 

 but the generality are reddish brown. They 

 are strong flavoured, and have the appearance 

 of being good keepers." They, however, want 

 uniformity in size and colour, but, by judicious 

 selection, a useful, sound, keeping variety may 

 probably be produced. The circumstance is 

 curious, and strongly favours opinions at present 

 attracting considerable attention, and which 

 may ere long overturn the long-established doc- 

 trine of the permanent distinctions supposed to 

 constitute what is called species in plants. 



Shallots are sold by weight. One lb. contains 

 about twenty ordinary-sized bulbs. 



§ 2. — GARLIC. 



Natural history. — Garlic, Allium sativum 

 (from Sativum, cultivated), L., belongs to the 

 same natural order, and class and order in the 

 Linnsean arrangement, as the shallot. It is a 

 native of Sicily, the south of France, and most 

 of the south of Europe, being found growing in 

 meadows, pastures, and waste places. It has 

 been cultivated in this country since prior to 

 1548. Old Thomas Tusser notices it as culti- 

 vated in the time of Queen Mary. His twelfth 

 verse for the month of November says, " Set 

 garlic and beans at St Edmund the King." 



Uses. — The roots of garlic (the only parts used) 

 held a place in most of our early pharmaco- 

 poeias, but, like many other of our vegetable 

 medicines, have been little used by modern 

 practitioners. Sydenham recommended its use 

 in the first stages of dropsy, as being a warm, 

 strengthening medicine. He also recommended 

 it as a powerful resolvent, " for which purpose," 

 Phillips informs us (vol. ii. p. 24), " he was led to 

 make use of it in the confluent smallpox. His 

 method was to cut the root in pieces, and apply 

 it, tied in a linen cloth, to the soles of the feet, 

 about the eighth day of the disease, after the face 

 began to swell, renewing it once a-day till the 

 danger was over." It is held a sovereign remedy 



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