Tap. 8046, 
ASPARAGUS MADAGASCARIENSIS, 
Madagasear. 
Litraces®. Tribe ASPARAGER. 
Asparagus, Linn. ; Penth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 765, 
Asparagus madagascariensis, Baker in Journ. Linn, Soc. vol. xvi. p. 206; 
species A, scandenti, Thunb., accedens, caule erecto differt. 
I'rutex erectus, ramosus. Rami tenues, rigidi, valde 5-costati. Folia ad 
spinas breves latas recurvas reducta. Phyllocladia ternata, oblanceolata 
vel fere oblonga, leviter obliqua, cuspidata, 6 lin. longa, 1} lin. lata. 
Flores dilute lutei, ad apices ramulorum ternatim dispositi, 3 lin. diam. ; 
pedicelli prope medium articulati. Perianthii segmenta elliptica, obtusa. 
Stamina perianthio wequilonga. Ovariwm distincte 3-lobatum; stylus 
ovario wequilongus, breviter 3-ramosus. Bacea 3-lobata, 6 lin. diam., 
rubra. 
This plant, which was received at Kew in 1903 from 
the Museum d’ Histoire Naturelle, Paris, under the name of 
Asparagus ruscifolius, produced an abundant crop of fruit 
in a tropical house in March last, and again flowered in 
May. Unlike most of the species of Asparagus grown for 
decorative purposes, it is not a climber, but an erect shrub 
with the appearance of a narrow-leaved form of Ruscus 
uculeatus, Linn. The plant here figured was not much 
over a foot high, but in a note on a herbarium specimen 
collected by Dr. G. W. Parker, it is said to attain a height 
of twelve feet. The type specimen was collected nearly 
thirty years years ago at Antananarivo by Miss Helen 
Gilpin, of the Friends’ Foreign Mission Association, and 
was erroneously described as a climber. Since then the 
species has been found in Central Madagascar by several 
other collectors. 
Desev.—An erect much-branched shrub. Branches 
slender, rigid, with about five prominent longitudinal 
ridges. Leaves developed as short, broad, recurved spurs, 
Phylloclades ternate, oblanceolate, or nearly oblong, 
slightly oblique, cuspidate, half an inch long, an eighth of 
an inch broad. lowers yellowish, in fascicles of three at 
the ends of the branchlets, quarter of an inch in diameter ; 
pedicels articulated near the middle. Pevianth-segments 
NovemBer Ist, 1905. 
