ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



109 



" foreign," as the walnut was called Walischenote in the fourteenth 

 century. This species differs from the common onion in having the 

 dilated part of the flower-stem in the middle and not at the base ; more- 

 over the alternate stamens are " trifid." " Eussian botanists have found 

 this species wild in Siberia towards the Altai Mountains, on the lake 

 Baikal in the land of the Kirghis." * It is known as the Eock Onion or 

 Stone Leek in Eussia. It has been cultivated in Great Britain since 

 1629. f At the present day it appears to be only grown, as the young 

 spring onions, for salads. De Oandolle regards Dodoens' figure of 

 Cepa ohlo'nga as a " hardly recognisable " one of A. fistulosum. His 

 figure in Historia Stirpium " is named " Cepa " and evidently is 

 only the common onion and not the Welsh onion. It is figured in 

 Curtis' s Botanical Magazine, No. 1230, 1809. 



Garlic (Allium sativum, L.) is of great antiquity as a cultivated 

 plant, as indicated by the many names it possesses in different countries. 

 Our word comes from the Welsh garlleg. De Oandolle has traced it 

 through many regions and gives the deserts of the Kirghis of Sungari, 

 in the S.W. of Siberia, as the only country with any degree of cer- 

 tainty, as its origin.''' Herodotus says that an inscription was on the 

 great pyramid of Egypt in his day, stating that 1600 talents had been 

 paid for onions, radishes and garlic for the workmen who built it — prob- 

 ably about 3300 b.c. 



Garlic is mentioned in several vocabularies of plants, from the 

 tenth to the fifteenth centuries, and described by the herbalists of the 

 sixteenth, from 1548 (Turner) onwards. Two British plants are 

 called Garlic," the wild (A. oleraceum), and the Crow (A. vineale); 

 both have been used either as pot-herbs or for flavouring. A third 

 species, A. ursinum, called Eansoms, has been eaten in times of 

 scarcity. 



EocAMBOLE (Allium Scorodoprasum, L.). This species most nearly 

 resembles the garlic, according to some authors; others make it very 

 distinct. It has been said to be "undoubtedly wild" in the Alpes- 

 Maritimes. Another botanist, Ledebour, says it is very common in 

 Eussia from Finland to the Crimea. "The natural habitat," writes 

 De Oandolle, " borders, therefore, on that of A. sativum; or else an 

 attentive study of all the forms will show that a smgle species, compris- 

 ing several varieties, extends over a great part of Europe and the 

 bordering countries of Asia." | 



It was not known to the ancients and its names are chiefly distinc- 

 tive in northern countries, as Denmark, Sweden, Germany, where it 

 was called RocTcenbolle, i.e. Bolle, onion, on rocks, Rocken. The 

 Eocambole is a British plant and sometimes called the Sand Leek; it 

 is found in Yorkshire and Lancashire to Fife and Perthshire, as well 

 as in Ireland. 



* Ledebour, Flor. Euss. iv. p. 169 ; referred to by A. de Candolle, op. cit. 

 p. 68. 



t Treasury of Botany. 

 . + Origin, of Cultivated Plants, p. 63 ff. 



