Bulbs are taken up before the spring, for if not, they are apt to spoil very quickly. It is a sign that they are ripe when the leaves become dry at the lower extremities. When too old they are held in disesteem; the same, too, with the long and the smaller ones; those, on the other hand, which are red and round are greatly preferred, as also those of the largest size. In most of them there is a certain degree of pungency in the upper part, but the middle is sweet. The ancients have stated that bulbs are reproduced from seed only, but in the champaign country of Præneste they grow spontaneously, and they grow to an unlimited extent in the territory of the Remi.[1036] CHAP. 31. (6.)—THE ROOTS, FLOWERS, AND LEAVES OF ALL THESE PLANTS. GARDEN PLANTS WHICH LOSE THEIR LEAVES. Nearly all[1037] the garden plants have a single[1038] root only, radishes, beet, parsley, and mallows, for example; it is lapathum, however, that has the longest root of them all, it attaining the length of three cubits even. The root of the wild kind is smaller and of a humid nature, and when up it will keep alive for a considerable period. In some of these plants, however, the roots are fibrous, as we find the case in parsley and mallows, for instance; in others, again, they are of a ligneous nature, as in ocimum, for example; and in others they are fleshy, as in beet, and in saffron even more so. In some, again, the root is composed of rind and flesh, as in the radish and the rape; while in others it is jointed, as in hay grass.[1039] Those plants which have not a straight root throw out immediately a great number of hairy fibres, orage[1040] and blite,[1041] for instance: squills again, bulbs, onions, and garlic never have any but a vertical root. Among the plants that grow spontaneously, there are some which have more numerous roots than leaves, spalax,[1042] for example, pellitory,[1043] and saffron.[1044] Wild thyme, southernwood, turnips, radishes, mint, and rue blossom all[1045] at once; while others, again, shed their blossom directly they have begun to flower. Ocimum[1046] blossoms gradually, beginning at the lower parts, and hence it is that it is so very long in blossom: the same is the case, too, with the plant known as heliotropium.[1047] In some plants the flower is white, in others yellow, and in others purple. The leaves fall first[1048] from the upper part in wild-marjoram and elecampane, and in rue[1049] sometimes, when it has been injured accidentally. In some plants the leaves are hollow, the onion and the scallion,[1050] more particularly. CHAP. 32.—VARIETIES OF THE ONION.