Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/644

 630 O'NEILL ONION the confederacy opposed taking sides with the English, and with the Tuscaroras they re- mained faithful to the colonists. They were consequently driven from their homes, their houses and church were burned, and their property was destroyed. For this the United States made compensation by treaty of Dec. 2, 1794. Previously they had by treaties of June 28, 1785, and Sept. 22, 1788, ceded their lands to the state of New York, reserving a tract which was not to be sold at any time, or leased, except in part. The Brotherton and Stockbridge Indians, who had received lands from the Oneidas, were to retain them. Some then emigrated to Canada and settled on the Thames; and a large band in August, 1821, purchased a tract on Green bay. The three bands have advanced in agriculture and the mechanic arts, while schools and churches have fitted them for the duties of citizens. In 1873 there were 266 Oneidas in New York, chiefly near Oneida Castle on the state reser- vation, with two schools ; 1,279 in Wisconsin, on a reservation of 65,000 acres, with 240 out of 400 children in their two schools, very little intemperance, and many well cultivated farms ; and 633 on the Thames in the province of On- tario; making in all 2,178, many more than the tribe could boast at any previous time since its first intercourse with the whites. O'NEILL, Eliza, an English actress, born in Ireland about 1795, died at her country seat, Bally giblin, near Mallow, Oct. 29, 1872. Her father was a strolling comedian, and she was educated for the stage. She succeeded on her first appearance as the duke of York in " Rich- ard III.," and acquired great popularity in Lon- don as Juliet, and in similar characters. In the height of her fame she married in 1819 William Wrixon Becher, M. P., who was made a baronet in 1831 and died in 1,850. OXEIZA, or Aneiza, a city of Nedjed, Arabia, situated in lower Kasim, about 250 m. E. N. E. of Medina; pop. in 1862, about 25,000. It is surrounded by double walls of brick, the in- ner range encircling the town, which is com- pactly built, and the outer circle, with towers and moat, protecting the gardens and palm groves which cover the intervening space. It was for centuries the capital of the province of Kasim and one of the most important com- mercial centres of inner Arabia ; but in 1862 it revolted against the authority of the Waha- bee ruler of Nedjed, and after a long siege was carried by assault in the spring of 1863, when many of its inhabitants were massacred, and the best part of it was destroyed. ONGARO. See DALL' ONGARO, FRANCESCO. ONION (from unio, the Latin name for a large kind of onion), the common name of the plant allium cepa. The genus allium (the ancient name for garlic) includes, besides several wild species, the cultivated garlic, leek, shallot, and chives. It belongs to the lily family, and is distinguished from related genera by its coated bulb, a naked scape, bearing at the top a simple umbel from a one- or two-leaved spathe, which soon becomes dry, and six-parted flowers, the divisions of which are white or colored and one-nerved; the style thread-like, stigma sim- ple, fruit a three-lobed, three-celled pod, with one or few seeds in each cell. All species have the pungent taste and odor known as alliaceous. The leaves in the onion (A. cepa) are cylin- drical, hollow, and shorter than the inflated flower stalk, and the flowers white ; in this, as in some other species, small bulblets are sometimes produced in place of the flowers. Its native country is supposed to be western Asia, probably between Palestine and India; species so nearly related that they have been taken for A. cepa are found in Siberia, The onion was among the earliest cultivated vege- tables, and in Egypt was a sort of divinity. The plant is a biennial, forming a bulb the first season from the seed, and the next year throw- ing up its flower stalk, producing seed, and perishing ; but there are deviations from this, Potato or Multiplier Onions. and there are two distinct races which repro- duce differently. The potato onions, also called multipliers, do not produce seed or even flowers, but form a great number of small bulbs ; one of these, the size of a walnut or smaller, plant- ed in the spring, will grow to a large bulb, which if set out the next spring will produce numerous small bulbs of different sizes. An- other race is the top or tree onion, which instead of flowers produces at the end of the stalk a cluster of small bulbs or onions about the size of a filbert ; these when planted will grow to a good size, and if the bulbs thus ob- tained are set out the next spring, they will produce a crop of small bulbs. Neither of these sorts is much cultivated except in pri- vate gardens, but the great supply is furnished by the ordinary seed-bearing kind. In most northern localities the seed is sown in spring and the bulbs mature in early autumn ; south of New York the development of the bulbs is arrested by dry weather, and without irriga- tion the crop will usually fail ; in such locali- ties onions are raised from sets, small bulbs of the size of a pea or larger grown the season