Historic vegetable cultivation

34.The first roots, or root-like parts, of plants made use of must have been some of the surface bulbs, as the onion. (Numb., xi. 5.) Under-ground bulbs and tubers, as the edible crocus (C. aureus Fl. Grﾵc.) of Syria, the orchis, the Ornithogalum, which, under the name of doves' dung, was eaten in Persia, and the earth nut, would probably be next discovered; but such under-ground plants as the turnip and the carrot must have been of much later discovery, as they are only produced in an eatable state by culture.