[1056] Owing to the acetic acid which the bulb contains, and which acts on the membranes of the eye.
[1057] “Pinguitudinis.”
[1058] Fée queries whether the early white onion of Florence, the smallest now known among the cultivated kinds, may not possibly be identical with the setanian, or else the Tusculan, variety.
[1059] From σχίζω, to “divide” or “tear off.”
[1060] “Capitata.”
[1061] For this reason, Fée is inclined to regard it as a variety either of garlic, Allium sativum, or of the chalotte, Allium Ascalonicum of Linnæus.
[1062] The Allium porrum of Linnæus.
[1063] This prejudice in favour of the leek, as Fée remarks, still exists. It is doubtful, however, whether its mucilage has any beneficial effect upon the voice. See B. xx. c. [21].
[1064] Fée says, that it is a practice with many gardeners, more harmful than beneficial, to cut the leaves of the leek as it grows, their object being to increase the size of the stalk.
[1065] Martial, B. xiii. Epig. 19, mentions the leeks of Aricia.