Garlic and onions[1051] are invoked by the Egyptians,[1052] when taking an oath, in the number of their deities. The Greeks have many varieties[1053] of the onion, the Sardian onion, the Samothracian, the Alsidenian, the setanian, the schistan, and the Ascalonian,[1054] so called from Ascalon,[1055] a city of Judæa. They have, all of them, a pungent smell, which[1056] draws tears from the eyes, those of Cyprus more particularly, and those of Cnidos the least of all. In all of them the body is composed of a cartilage of an unctuous[1057] nature. The variety known as the setanian is the smallest of them all, with the exception of the Tusculan[1058] onion, but it is sweet to the taste. The schistan[1059] and the Ascalonian kinds are used for storing. The schistan onion is left during the winter with the leaves on; in the spring it is stripped of them, upon which offsets make their appearance at the same divisions as the leaves; it is to this circumstance that this variety owes its name. Taking the hint from this fact, it is recommended to strip the other kinds of their leaves, to make them bulb all the better, instead of running to seed. The Ascalonian onion is of a peculiar nature, being barren in some measure in the root; hence it is that the Greeks have recommended it to be reproduced from seed, and not from roots: the transplanting, too, they say, should be done later in the spring, at the time the plant germinates, the result being that it bulbs with all the greater rapidity, and hastens, as it were, to make up for lost time; great dispatch, however, is requisite in taking it up, for when ripe it rots with the greatest rapidity. If propagated from roots, it throws out a long stalk, runs rapidly to seed, and dies. There are considerable differences, too, in the colour of the onion; the whitest of all are those grown at Issus and Sardes. The onions, too, of Crete are held in high esteem, but there is some doubt whether they are not the same as the Ascalonian variety; for when grown from seed they produce a fine bulb, but when planted they throw out a long stalk and run to seed; in fact, they differ from the Ascalonian kind only in the sweetness of their flavour.