^00 M. Link 071 the Ancient History of 
§ ^.) that it sends out young bulbs below ; and therein lies the 
distinction between A. porrum and A. ampeloprasum. Linnaeus 
says distinctly enough of A, ampeloprasum^ Habitat in oriente^ 
et insula Holm Anglia. The first of these circumstances is 
founded on the fact, that this plant was first introduced at Con- 
stantinople ; the other on an old notice of a person called New- 
ton, who probably confounded this plant with A. scorodoprasum. 
What the Ampeloprasum of the ancients was, we cannot deter- 
mine, from the scanty characteristics of it which have been left. 
Perhaps it is A. porrum. This plant, which is at present gene- 
rally used, grows wild, according to Linnaeus, in Switzerland ; 
but Haller has doubts upon that point. In Athenaeus, yjjTg;oy is 
said to be like the Ampeloprasum ; and as yyinm is not used in 
more recent writings, it has probably given place to Ampelopra- 
sum. IlIoq Scorodoprasum o? the ancients may be considered 
as the A. scorodoprasum of the moderns, that is to say, the 
Ophioscorodon of the ancient botanists. The 4- scorodoprasum 
of Limneus is little or nothing different from A. arenarium. 
As the difference could not be determined, some writers, as for 
instance Willdenow, considered the Ophioscorodon to be quite a 
different plant, which Linnaeus had taken for a variety of A. sco- 
rodoprasum. 'Zk&^o'^ov, in fine, is A. sativum^ without doubt. 
What the ancients say of its strpng smell, — of its propagation, 
which is by bulbs, but likewise, although more tardily, by seed, 
— agrees perfectly with this. According to Linnaeus, garlic grows 
wild in Sicily ; but this opinion is founded on an ancient and 
very doubtful notice of Cupanus. Among the cultivated leek 
species, we are only acquainted with the birthTplace of A. schce- 
noprasum, which grows wild on the mountains of southern Eu- 
rope, but was not cultivated, so far as I know, by the ancients. 
What the Asparagus of the ancients in general was, we are 
informed by Galen, {JJte Aliment. Facult. 1. ii.), namely, the 
young shoots of various plants, as, for example of Lettuce, 
Mallows, Beet, Lapathum, and some others which are eaten. 
Asparagus, in Theophrastus, is one of the prickly species of the 
genus Asparagus, which grow in the south of Europe. Dio»- 
corides describes a garden asparagus so exactly, tliat it is impos- 
sible to doubt that it is our common asparagus. It was eaten, 
too, and its effects were the same with those of our asparagus. 
