[1046] Fée thinks that the ocimum of Pliny is not the basil of the moderns, the Ocimum basilicum of the naturalists. The account, however, here given would very well apply to basil.
[1047] The Heliotropium Europæum of botany. See B. xxii. c. [19].
[1048] These assertions, Fée says, are not consistent with modern experience.
[1049] See c. [45] of this Book.
[1050] “Gethyum.” The Allium schœnoprasum, probably, of botany, the ciboul or scallion.
[1051] The Allium cepa of Linnæus.
[1052] The inhabitants of Pelusium, more particularly, were devoted to the worship of the onion. They held it, in common with garlic, in great aversion as an article of food. At Pelusium there was a temple also in which the sea-squill was worshipped.
[1053] With some little variation, from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4.
[1054] Supposed to be identical with the Allium Ascalonicum of Linnæus, the chalotte. Pliny is the only writer who mentions the Alsidenian onion.
[1055] To the Ascalonian onion, the scallion, or ciboul, owes its English name.