Allium (Sturtevant, 1919)
| Allium (Sturtevant, 1919) |
Allium akaka Gmel. Liliaceae.
Persia. This plant appears in the bazar in Teheren as a vegetable under
the name of wolag. It also grows in the Alps. The whole of the young
plant is considered a delicacy and is used as an addition to rice in a
pilau.
A. ampeloprasum Linn. GREAT-HEADED GARLIC. LEVANT
GARLIC. WILD LEEK.
Europe and the Orient. This is a hardy perennial, remarkable for the
size of the bulbs. The leaves and stems somewhat resemble those of the
leek. The peasants in certain parts of Southern Europe eat it raw and
this is its only known use.
A. angulosum Linn. MOUSE GARLIC.
Siberia. Called on the upper Yenisei mischei-tschesnok, mouse garlic,
and from early times collected and salted for winter use.
A. ascalonicum Linn. SHALLOT.
Cultivated everywhere. The Askolonion krommoon of Theophrastus and
the Cepa ascolonia of Pliny, are supposed to be our shallot but this
identity can scarcely be claimed as assured. It is not established that
the shallot occurs in a wild state, and De Candolle is inclined to believe
it is a form of A. cepa, the onion. It is mentioned and figured in nearly
all the early botanies, and many repeat the statement of Pliny that it
came from Ascalon, a town in Syria, whence the name. Michaud, in his
History of the Crusades, says that our gardens owe to the holy wars
shallots, which take their name from Ascalon. Amatus Lusitanus, 1554,
gives Spanish, Italian, French and German names, which go to show its
early culture in these countries. In England, shallots are said to have
been cultivated in 1633, but McIntosh says they were introduced in
1548; they do not seem to have been known to Gerarde in 1597. In
1633, Worlidge says "eschalots art now from France become an English
condiment." Shallots are enumerated for American gardens in 1806.
Vilmorin mentions one variety with seven sub-varieties.
The bulbs are compound, separating into what are called cloves, like
those of garlic, and are of milder flavor than other cultivated alliums.
They are used in cookery as a seasoner in stews and soups, as also in a
raw state; the cloves, cut into small sections, form an ingredient in
French salads and are also sprinkled over steaks and chops. They
make an excellent pickle. In China, the shallot is grown but is not
valued as highly as is A. uliginosum.
A. canadense Linn. TREE ONION. WILD GARLIC.
North America. There is some hesitation in referring the tree onion of the
garden to this wild onion. Loudon refers to it as "the tree, or bulbbearing,
onion, syn. Egyptian onion, A. cepa, var. viviparium; the stem
produces bulbs instead of flowers and when these bulbs are planted
they produce underground onions of considerable size and, being
much stronger flavored than those of any other variety, they go farther
in cookery." Booth says, "the bulb-bearing tree onion was introduced
into England from Canada in 1820 and is considered to be a
vivaparous variety of the common onion, which it resembles in
appearance. It differs in its flower-stems being surmounted by a cluster
of small green bulbs instead of bearing flowers and seed." It is a
peculiarity of A. canadense that it often bears a head of bulbs in the
place of flowers; its flavor is very strong; it is found throughout northern
United States and Canada. Mueller says its top bulbs are much sought
for pickles of superior flavor. Brown says its roots are eaten by some
Indians. In 1674, when Marquette and his party journeyed from Green
Bay to the present site of Chicago, these onions formed almost the entire
source of food. The lumbermen of Maine often used the plant in their
broths for flavoring. On the East Branch of the Penobscot, these onions
occur in abundance and are bulb-producing on their stalks. They grow
in the clefts of ledges and even with the scant soil attain a foot in height.
In the lack of definite information, it may be allowable to suggest that
the tree onion may be a hybrid variety from this wild species, or
possibly the wild species improved by cultivation. The name, Egyptian
onion, is against this surmise, while, on the other hand, its apparent
origination in Canada is in its favor, as is also the appearance of the
growing plants.
A. cepa Linn. ONION.
Persia and Beluchistan. The onion has been known and cultivated as
an article of food from the earliest period of history. Its native country is
unknown. At the present time it is no longer found growing wild, but all
authors ascribe to it an eastern origin. Perhaps it is indigenous from
Palestine to India, whence it has extended to China, Cochin China,
Japan, Europe, North and South Africa and America. It is mentioned in
the Bible as one of the things for which the Israelites longed in the
wilderness and complained about to Moses. Herodotus says, in his time
there was an inscription on the Great Pyramid stating the sum
expended for onions, radishes and garlic, which had been consumed by
the laborers during the progress of its erection, as 1600 talents. A
variety was cultivated, so excellent that it received worship as a divinity,
to the great amusement of the Romans, if Juvenal is to be trusted.
Onions were prohibited to the Egyptian priests, who abstained from
most kinds of pulse, but they were not excluded from the altars of the
gods. Wilkinson says paintings frequently show a priest holding them
in his hand, or covering an altar with a bundle of their leaves and roots.
They were introduced at private as well as public festivals and brought
to table. The onions of Egypt were mild and of an excellent flavor and
were eaten raw as well as cooked by persons of all classes.
Hippocrates says that onions were commonly eaten 430 B. C.
Theophrastus, 322 B. C., names a number of varieties, the Sardian,
Cnidian, Samothracian and Setanison, all named from the places where
grown. Dioscorides, 60 A. D., speaks of the onion as long or round,
yellow or white. Columella, 42 A. D., speaks of the Marsicam, which the
country people call unionem, and this word seems to be the origin of
our word, onion, the French ognon. Pliny, 79 A. D., devotes
considerable space to cepa, and says the round onion is the best, and
that red onions are more highly flavored than the white. Palladius, 210
A. D., gives minute directions for culture. Apicius, 230 A. D., gives a
number of recipes for the use of the onion in cookery but its uses by
this epicurean writer are rather as a seasoner than as an edible. In the
thirteenth century, Albertus Magnus describes the onion but does not
include it in his list of garden plants where he speaks of the leek and
garlic, by which we would infer, what indeed seems to have been the
case with the ancients, that it was in less esteem than these, now minor,
vegetables. In the sixteenth century, Amatus Lusitanus says the onion
is one of the commonest of vegetables and occurs in red and white
varieties, and of various qualities, some sweet, others strong, and yet
others intermediate in savor. In 1570, Matthiolus refers to varieties as
large and small, long, round and flat, red, bluish, green and white.
Laurembergius, 1632, says onions differ in form, some being round,
others, oblong; in color, some white, others dark red; in size, some
large, others small; in their origin, as German, Danish, Spanish. He says
the Roman colonies during the time of Agrippa grew in the gardens of
the monasteries a Russian sort which attained sometimes the weight of
eight pounds. He calls the Spanish onion oblong, white and large,
excelling all other sorts in sweetness and size and says it is grown in
large abundance in Holland. At Rome, the sort which brings the highest
price in the markets is the Caieta; at Amsterdam, the St. Omer.
There is a tradition in the East, as Glasspoole writes, that when Satan
stepped out of the Garden of Eden after the fall of man, onions sprang
up from the spot where he placed his right foot and garlic from that
where his left foot touched.
Targioni-Tozzetti thinks the onion will probably prove identical with A.
fistulosum Linn., a species having a rather extended range in the
mountains of South Russia and whose southwestern limits are as yet
unascertained.
The onion has been an inmate of British gardens, says McIntosh, as
long as they deserve the appellation. Chaucer," about 1340, mentions
them: "Wel loved he garleek, onyons and ek leekes."
Humboldt says that the primitive Americans were acquainted with the
onion and that it was called in Mexican xonacatl. Cortez, in speaking of
the edibles which they found on the march to Tenochtitlan, cites onions,
leeks and garlic. De Candollel does not think that these names apply to
the species cultivated in Europe. Sloane, in the seventeenth century,
had seen the onion only in Jamaica in gardens. The word xonacati is
not in Hernandez, and Acosta says expressly that the onions and
garlics of Peru came originally from Europe. It is probable that onions
were among the garden herbs sown by Columbus at Isabela Island in
1494, although they are not specifically mentioned. Peter Martyr
speaks of "onyons" in Mexico and this must refer to a period before
1526, the year of his death, seven years after the discovery of Mexico. It
is possible that onions, first introduced by the Spaniards to the West
Indies, had already found admittance to Mexico, a rapidity of
adaptation scarcely impossible to that civilized Aztec race, yet
apparently improbable at first thought.
Onions are mentioned by Wm. Wood, 1629-33, as cultivated in
Massachusetts; in 1648, they were cultivated in Virginia; and were
grown at Mobile, Ala., in 1775. In 1779, onions were among the Indian
crops destroyed by Gen. Sullivan near Geneva, N. Y. In 1806, McMahon
mentions six varieties in his list of American esculents. In 1828, the
potato onion, A. cepa, var. aggregatum G. Don, is mentioned by
Thorburn as a "vegetable of late introduction into our country." Burr
describes fourteen varieties.
Vilmorin describes sixty varieties, and there are a number of varieties
grown in France which are not noted by him. In form, these may be
described as flat, flattened, disc-form, spherical, spherical-flattened,
pear-shaped, long. This last form seems to attain an exaggerated length
in Japan, where they often equal a foot in length. In 1886, Kizo Tamari,
a Japanese commissioner to this country, says, "Our onions do not
have large, globular bulbs. They are grown just like celery and have
long, white, slender stalks." In addition to the forms mentioned above,
are the top onion and the potato onion. The onion is described in many
colors, such as white, dull white, silvery white, pearly white, yellowishgreen,
coppery-yellow, salmon-yellow, greenish-yellow, bright yellow,
pale salmon, salmon-pink, coppery-pink, chamois, red, bright red,
blood-red, dark red, purplish.
But few of our modem forms are noticed in the early botanies. The
following synonymy includes all that are noted, but in establishing it, it
must be noted that many of the figures upon which it is founded are
quite distinct:
I.
Bulb flat at bottom, tapering towards stem.
Cepa. Fuchsius, 430. 1542.
Cepa rotunda. Bodaeus, 787. 1644.
Caepe sive Cepa rubra el alba. Bauhin, J. 2: 549. 1651.
Geant de Rocca. Vilm. 387. 1883.
Mammoth Pompeii. American Seedsmen.
Golden Queen. American Seedsmen.
Paris Silverskin. American Seedsmen.
Silver White Etna. American Seedsmen.
The difference at first sight between the crude figure of Fuchsius and
the modern varieties is great, but ordinary experience indicates that the
changes are no greater than can be observed under selection.
II.
Bulb round at bottom, tapering towards stem.
Zwiblen. Roeszl. 121. 1550.
Cepa. Trag. 737. 1552.
Caepa. Cam. Epit. 324. 1586.
Blanc hatif de Valence. Vilm. 378. 1883.
Neapolitan Marzajola. American Seedsmen.
Round White Silverskin. American Seedsmen.
White Portugal. American Seedsmen.
III.
Bulb roundish, flattened above and below.
Cepa. Matth. 276, 1558; Pin. 215. 1561.
Caepa capitata. Matth. 388. 1570.
Cepe. Lob. Obs. 73. 1576; Icon. 1:150. 1591.
Cepa rubra. Ger. 134. 1597.
Cepa rotunda. Dod. 687. i6i6.
Rouge gros-plat d'ltalie. Vilm. 387. 1883.
Bermuda. American Seedsmen.
Large Flat Madeira. American Seedsmen.
Wethersfield Large Red. American Seedsmen.
IV.
Bulb rounded below, flattened above.
Cepa. Pictorius 82. 1581.
Philadelphia Yellow Dutch, or Strasburg. American Seedsmen.
V.
Bulb spherical, or nearly so.
Cepa. Trag. 737. 1552. Lauremb. 26. 1632,
Cepe. Lob. Obs. 73. 1576; Icon. 1;150. 1591.
Cepe alba. Ger. 134. 1597.
Caepa capitata. Matth. 419. 1598.
Juane de Danvers. Vilm. 380. 1883.
Danvers. American Seedsmen.
VI
Bulb concave on the bottom.
Cepa rotunda. Bodaeus 786. 1644.
Extra Early Red. American Seedsmen.
VII.
Bulb oblong.
Caepa. Cam. Epit. 324. 1586.
Cepae Hispanica oblonga. Lob. Icon. 1:150. 1591.
Cepa oblonga. Dod. 687. 1616; Bodaeus 787. 1644.
Piriform. Vilm. 388. 1883.
VIII.
The top onion.
In 1587, Dalechamp records with great surprise an onion plant which
bore small bulbs in the place of seed.
A. cernuum Roth. WILD ONION.
Western New York to Wisconsin and southward. This and A.
canadense formed almost the entire source of food for Marquette and
his party on their journey from Green Bay to the present site of Chicago
in the fall of 1674.
A. fistulosum Linn. CIBOUL. TWO-BLADED ONION. WELSH
ONION.
Siberia, introduced into England in 1629. The Welsh onion acquired its
name from the German walsch (foreign). It never forms a bulb like the
common onion but has long, tapering roots and strong fibers. It is
grown for its leaves which are used in salads. McIntosh says it has a
small, flat, brownish-green bulb which ripens early and keeps well and
is useful for pickling. It is very hardy and, as Targioni-Tozzetti thinks,
is probably the parent species of the onion. It is mentioned by
McMahon in 1806 as one of the American garden esculents; by
Randolph in Virginia before 1818; and was cataloged for sale by
Thorburn in 1828, as at the present time.
A. neapolitanum Cyr. DAFFODIL GARLIC.
Europe and the Orient. According to Heldreich, it yields roots which are
edible.
A. obliquum Linn.
Siberia. From early times the plant has been cultivated on the Tobol as
a substitute for garlic.
A. odorum Linn. FRAGRANT-FLOWERED GARLIC.
Siberia. This onion is eaten as a vegetable in Japan.
A. oleraceum Linn. FIELD GARLIC.
Europe. The young leaves are used in Sweden to flavor stews and
soups or fried with other herbs and are sometimes so employed in
Britain but are inferior to those of the cultivated garlic.
A. porrum Linn. LEEK.
Found growing wild in Algiers but the Bon Jardinier says it is a native
of Switzerland. It has been cultivated from the earliest times. This
vegetable was the prason of the ancient Greeks, the porrum of the
Romans, who distinguished two kinds, the capitatum, or leek, and the
sectile, or chives, although Columella, Pliny, and Palladius, indicate
these as forms of the same plant brought about through difference of
culture, the chive-like form being produced by thick planting. In
Europe, the leek was generally known throughout the Middle Ages, and
in the earlier botanies some of the figures of the leek represent the two
kinds of planting alluded to by the Roman writers. In England, 1726,
Townsend says that "leeks are mightily used in the kitchen for broths
and sauces." The Israelites complained to Moses of the deprivation from
the leeks of Egypt during their wanderings in the wilderness. Pliny
states, that in his time the best leeks were brought from Egypt, and
names Aricia in Italy as celebrated for them. Leeks were brought into
great notice by the fondness for them of the Emperor Nero who used to
eat them for several days in every month to clear his voice, which
practice led the people to nickname him Porrophagus. The date of its
introduction into England is given as 1562, but it certainly was
cultivated there earlier, for it has been considered from time immemorial
as the badge of Welshmen, who won a victory in the sixth century over
the Saxons which they attributed to the leeks they wore by the order of
St. David to distinguish them in the battle. It is referred to by Tusser
and Gerarde as if in common use in their day.
The leek may vary considerably by culture and often attain a large size;
one with the blanched portion a foot long and nine inches in
circumference and the leaf fifteen inches in breadth and three feet in
length has been recorded. Vilmorin described eight varieties in 1883
but some of these are scarcely distinct. In 1806, McMahon named three
varieties among American garden esculents. Leeks are mentioned by
Romans as growing at Mobile, Ala., in 1775 and as cultivated by the
Choctaw Indians. The reference to leeks by Cortez is noticed under A.
cepa, the onion. The lower, or blanched, portion is the part generally
eaten, and this is used in soups or boiled and served as asparagus.
Buist names six varieties. The blanched stems are much used in French
cookery.
A. reticulatum Fras.
North America. This is a wild onion whose root is eaten by the Indians.
A. roseum Linn. ROSY-FLOWERED GARLIC.
Mediterranean countries. According to Heldreich, this plant yields
edible roots.
A. rotundum Linn.
Europe and Asia Minor. The leaves are eaten by the Greeks of Crimea.
A. rubellum Bieb.
Europe, Siberia and the Orient. The bulbs are eaten by the hill people of
India and the leaves are dried and preserved as a condiment.
A. sativum Linn. CLOWN'S TREACLE. GARLIC.
Europe. This plant, well known to the ancients, appears to be native to
the plains of western Tartary and at a very early period was transported
thence over the whole of Asia (excepting Japan), north Africa and
Europe. It is believed to be the skorodon hemeron of Dioscorides and
the allium of Pliny. It was ranked by the Egyptians among gods in
taking an oath, according to Pliny. The want of garlics was lamented to
Moses by the Israelites in the wilderness. Homer makes garlic a part of
the entertainment which Nestor served to his guest, Machaon. The
Romans are said to have disliked it on account of the strong scent but
fed it to their laborers to strengthen them and to their soldiers to excite
courage. It was in use in England prior to 1548 and both Turner and
Tusser notice it. Garlic is said to have been introduced in China 140-86
B. C. and to be found noticed in various Chinese treatises of the
fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Loureiro
found it under cultivation in Cochin China.
The first mention of garlic in America is by Peter Martyr, who states that
Cortez fed on it in Mexico. In Peru, Acosta says "the Indians esteem
garlike above all the roots of Europe." It was cultivated by the Choctaw
Indians in gardens before 1775 and is mentioned among garden
esculents by American writers on gardening in 1806 and since. The
plant has the well-known alliaceous odor which is strongly penetrating,
especially at midday. It is not as much used by northern people as by
those of the south of Europe. In many parts of Europe, the peasantry
eat their brown bread with slices of garlic which imparts a flavor
agreeable to them. In seed catalogs, the sets are listed while seed is
rarely offered. There are two varieties, the common and the pink.
A. schoenoprasum Linn. CHIVE. CIVE.
North temperate zone. This perennial plant seems to be grown in but
few American gardens, although McMahon, 1806, included it in his list
of American esculents. Chive plants are included at present among the
supplies offered in our best seed catalogs. In European gardens, they
are cultivated for the leaves which are used in salads, soups and for
flavoring. Chives are much used in Scotch families and are considered
next to indispensable in omelettes and hence are much more used on
the Continent of Europe, particularly in Catholic countries. In England,
chives were described by Gerarde as "a pleasant Sawce and good Potherb;"
by Worlidge in 1683; the chive was among seedsmen's supplies
in 1726; and it is recorded as formerly in great request but now of little
regard, by Bryant in 1783.
The only indication of variety is found in Noisette, who enumerates the
civette, the cive d'Angleterre and the cive de Portugal but says these
are the same, only modified by soil. The plant is an humble one and is
propagated by the bulbs; for, although it produces flowers, these are
invariably sterile according to Vilmorin.
A. scorodoprasum Linn. ROCAMBOLE. SAND LEEK. SPANISH
GARLIC.
Europe, Caucasus region and Syria. This species grows wild in the
Grecian Islands and probably elsewhere in the Mediterranean regions.
Loudon says it is a native of Denmark, formerly cultivated in England
for the same purposes as garlic but now comparatively neglected. It is
not of ancient culture as it cannot be recognized in the plants of the
ancient Greek and Roman authors and finds no mention of garden
cultivation by the early botanists. It is the Scorodoprasum of Clusius,
1601, and the Allii genus, ophioscorodon dictum quibusdam, of J.
Bauhin, 1651, but there is no indication of culture in either case. Ray,
1688, does not refer to its cultivation in England. In 1726, however,
Townsend says it is "mightly in request;" in 1783, Bryant classes it with
edibles. In France it was grown by Quintyne, 1690. It is mentioned by
Gerarde as a cultivated plant in 1596. Its bulbs are smaller than those
of garlic, milder in taste and are produced at the points of the stem as
well as at its base. Rocambole is mentioned among American garden
esculents by McMahon, 1806, by Gardiner and Hepburn, 1818, and by
Bridgeman, 1832.
A. senescens Linn.
Europe and Siberia. This species is eaten as a vegetable in Japan.
A. sphaerocephalum Linn. ROUND-HEADED GARLIC.
Europe and Siberia. From early times this species has been eaten by
the people about Lake Baikal.
A. stellatum Fras.
North America. "Bulb oblong-ovate and eatable."
A. ursinum Linn. BEAR'S GARLIC. BUCKRAMS. GIPSY ONION.
HOG'S GARLIC. RAMSONS.
Europe and northern Asia. Gerarde, 1597, says the leaves were eaten in
Holland. They were also valued formerly as a pot-herb in England,
though very strong. The bulbs were also used boiled and in salads. In
Kamchatka this plant is much prized. The Russians as well as the
natives gather it for winter food.
A. vineale Linn. CROW GARLIC. FIELD GARLIC. STAG'S GARLIC.
Europe and now naturalized in northern America near the coast. In
England, the leaves are used as are those of garlic.
