“According to Roxburgh,[243] _Allium ascalonicum_ is much cultivated in India. The Sanskrit name _pulandu_ is attributed to it, a word nearly identical with _palandu_, attributed to _A. Cepa_.[244] Evidently the distinction between the two species is not clear in Indian or Anglo-Indian works. “Loureiro says he saw _Allium ascalonicum_ cultivated in Cochin-China,[245] but he does not mention China, and Thunberg does not indicate this species in Japan. Its cultivation, therefore, is not universal in the east of Asia. This fact, and the doubt about the Sanskrit name, lead me to think that it is not ancient in Southern Asia. Neither, in spite of the name of the species, am I convinced that it existed in Western Asia. Rauwolf, Forskal, and Delile do not mention it in Siberia, in Arabia, or in Egypt. Linnæus[246] mentions Hasselquist as having found the species in Palestine. Unfortunately, he gives no details about the locality, nor about its wild condition. In the _Travels_ of Hasselquist[247] I find a _Cepa montana_ mentioned as growing on Mount Tabor and on a neighbouring mountain, but there is nothing to prove that it was this species. In his article on the onions and garlics of the Hebrews he mentions only _Allium Cepa_, then _A. porrum_ and _A. sativum_. Sibthorp did not find it in Greece,[248] and Fraas[249] does not mention it as now cultivated in that country. According to Koch,[250] it is naturalized among the vines near Fiume. However, Viviani[251] only speaks of it as a cultivated plant in Dalmatia. “From all these facts I am led to believe that _Allium ascalonicum_ is not a species. It is enough to render its primitive existence doubtful, to remark: (1) that Theophrastus and ancient writers in general have spoken of it as a form of the _Allium Cepa_, having the same importance as the varieties cultivated in Greece, Thrace, and elsewhere; (2) that its existence in a wild state cannot be proved; (3) that it is little cultivated, or not all, in the countries where it is supposed to have had its origin, as in Syria, Egypt, and Greece; (4) that it is commonly without flowers, whence the name of _Cepa sterilis_ given by Bauhin, and the number of its bulbs is an allied fact; (5) when it does flower, the organs of the flower are similar to those of _A. Cepa_, or at least no difference has been hitherto discovered, and according to Koch[252] the only difference in the whole plant is that the stalk and leaves are less swelled, although fistulous.”