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North America. There is some hesitation in referring the tree onion of the garden to this wild onion. Loudon<ref>Loudon, J. C. ''Hort.'' 661. 1860.</ref> refers to it as "the tree, or bulbbearingbulb-bearing, 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<ref>Booth, W.B. ''Treas. Bot.'' 1:40. 1870.</ref> 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 <ref>Mueller, F. ''Sel. Pls.'' 28 B. 1891.</ref> says its top bulbs are much sought for pickles of superior flavor. Brown <ref>Brown, R. ''Gard. Chron.'' 1320. 1868.</ref> says its roots are eaten by some Indians. In 1674, when Marquette <ref>Case ''Bot. Index'' 34. 1880.</ref> 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.

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 <ref>De Candolle, A. ''Geog. Bot.'' 828. 1855.</ref> 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 <ref>Wilkinson, J. G. ''Anc. Egypt'', 1: 168. 1854.</ref> 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 <ref>Hippocrates ''Opera'' Cornarius Ed. 113. 1546.</ref> says that onions were commonly eaten 430 B. C. Theophrastus<ref>Theophrastus ''Hist. Pl.'' Bodaeus Ed. 761, 785. 1644.</ref>, 322 B. C., names a number of varieties, the Sardian, Cnidian, Samothracian and Setanison, all named from the places where grown. Dioscorides<ref>Dioscorides Ruellius Ed. 135. 1529.</ref>, 60 A. D., speaks of the onion as long or round, yellow or white. Columella<ref>Columella lib. 12, c. 10.</ref>, 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<ref>Pliny lib. 19, c. 32.</ref>, 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<ref>Palladius lib. 3, c. 24.</ref>, 210 A. D., gives minute directions for culture. Apicius<ref>Apicius ''Opson.'' 1709.</ref>, 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 <ref>Albertus Magnus ''Veg.'' Jessen Ed. 487. 1867.</ref> 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 <ref>Dioscorides Amatus Lusitanus Ed. 273. 1554.</ref> 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 <ref>Matthiolus ''Comment'' 389. 1570.</ref> refers to varieties as large and small, long, round and flat, red, bluish, green and white. Laurembergius<ref>Laurembergius ''Apparat. Plant.'' 27. 1632.</ref>, 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 <ref>Glasspoole, H. G. ''Ohio State Bd. Agr. Rpt.'' 29:422. 1874.</ref> 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 <ref>Targioni-Tozzetti ''Journ. Hort. Soc. Lond.'' 9: 147. 1855.</ref> 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<ref>McIntosh, C. ''Book Gard.'' 2:31. 1855.</ref>, as long as they deserve the appellation. Chaucer<ref>Chaucer ''Prologue'' V 634. 1340.</ref>," about 1340, mentions them: "Wel loved he garleek, onyons and ek leekes."

Humboldt <ref>De Candolle, A. ''Geog. Bot.'' 2:829. 1855.</ref> says that the primitive Americans were acquainted with the onion and that it was called in Mexican ''xonacatl''. Cortez<ref>Ibid.</ref>, 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 ''xonacatl'' 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.