ASPARAGUS. 65 
on some parts of the English coast. Juvenal makes mention of 
a large lobster on a table surrounded with asparagus; and 
promises (in Satire xi.) to his friend Perseus a plate of mountain 
asparagus, which had been gathered by his farmer’s wife. 
** Montani 
Asparagi posito, quos legit villica, fuso.” 
Originally the Asparagus shoot grew from twelve to twenty 
feet high. Under the Romans stems of this plant were raised, 
each three pounds in weight, heavy enough to knock down an 
attendant slave with. But the former Grecian doctors 
denounced Asparagus as injurious to the sight. 
“English cooks,” says Sir Henry Thompson, “ rarely follow 
the proper method for boiling Asparagus, which should be as 
follows: The stalks of a stouter sort should be cut of exactly 
equal lengths, and boiled standing, tops upward, in a deep 
saucepan, nearly two inches of the heads being out of the water ; 
the steam will then suffice to cook these heads, which form the 
most tender part of the plant; at the same time the tougher 
stalky portion is rendered succulent by the longer boiling which 
this plan permits. Instead of the orthodox twenty minutes 
allowed to average Asparagus lying horizontally in the saucepan, 
after the usual English fashion, (which only half cooks the stalk, 
and overcooks the head, diminishing its flavour, and consistence), 
a period of from thirty to fifty minutes, on the plan recom- 
mended, will render delicious fully a third more of the head, 
which is cooked by the steam alone. One reason why it is not 
uncommon to hear the best product of the fields of Argenteuil 
depreciated in this country, and our own Asparagus preferred, 
is that the former is insufficiently cooked at most English tables.” 
Pliny mentions in glowing terms the alimentary use of Asparagus. 
Its sprouts contain 94 per cent of water, nearly 2 per cent of 
nitrogenized matter, some fat, a minute percentage of sugar, and 
over 2 per cent of other organic substances. The asparagin 
forms one seventh part of the whole amount of non-nitrogenized 
Substance. Formerly the roots were also used medicinally, and 
the juice of the red berries was an ingredient in what was known 
as the Benedictine electuary. . 
Mortimer Collins tells that Liebig, or some other scientist, 
maintains that asparagin, the alkaloid of asparagus, develops 
form in the human brain; so that if vou get hold of an artistic 
child. and give him plenty of asparagus, he is likely to grow into 
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