and exhibiting the next
coating, which is greenish-white. It has a small neck, and is
particularly mild flavored. One of the best for early winter use, but
early decays.

Very distinct from the White Portugal of the New-England markets.

YELLOW ONION.

Silver-skin of New England.

[Illustration: Yellow Onion.]

One of the oldest varieties, and, as a market onion, probably better
known and more generally cultivated in this country than any other sort.
The true Yellow Onion has a flattened form and a very small neck. Its
size is rather above medium,--measuring, when well grown, from three
inches to three inches and a half in diameter, and from two inches to
two inches and a half in depth. Skin yellowish-brown, or
copper-yellow,--becoming somewhat deeper by age, or if exposed long to
the sun; flesh white, fine-grained, comparatively mild, sugary, and well
flavored. It keeps well, and is very prolific: few of the plants, in
good soils and seasons, fail to produce good-sized and well-ripened
bulbs. For the vegetable garden, as well as for field culture, it may be
considered a standard sort.

The Danvers Onion, which is but a sub-variety of the common Yellow, may
prove somewhat more profitable for extensive cultivation, on account of
its globular form; but neither in its flavor nor in its keeping
properties can it be said to possess any superiority over the last
named.

The term "Silver-skin," by which this onion is very generally though
erroneously known throughout New England, has created great confusion
between seedsmen and dealers. Much perplexity might be avoided if its
application to the Yellow Onion were entirely abandoned. The genuine
Silver-skin, as its name implies, has a skin of pure, silvery whiteness;
and is, in other respects, very dissimilar to the present variety.

When extensively cultivated for the market, it should be sown and
subsequently treated as directed for the Danvers Onion. The yield per
acre varies from four to six hundred bushels.

* * * * *

ROCAMBOLE.

Allium scorodoprasum.

This plant is a half-hardy perennial from Denmark, partaking of the
character of both the leek and garlic. Bulbs or cloves similar to those
of the common garlic, with much the same flavor, though somewhat milder;
leaves large; flower-stalk about two feet high, contorted or coiled
towards the top, and producing at its extremity a group of bulbs, or
rocamboles, intermixed with