Asparagus. hexandria monogynia. 151 



time the close of the rains, and the beginning of the cold 

 season ; seed ripe in December. 



Root perennial, composed of many, fusiform, succulent 

 tubers. Stems erect, flexuous, round. Branches numer- 

 ous, alternate, expanding, when old round, while young 

 angular. Bark smooth, and green on the young parts ; 

 on the old, a little ferruginous. Thorns solitary, under 

 the branches ; branchlets and leaves, recurved, strong,and 

 sharp. Leaves three-fold, acerose, three-sided, polished, 

 acute. Stipules solitary, between the three leaves, branch, 

 orbranchlet and thorn triangular, scariose, permanent. Ra- 

 cemes lateral, generally solitary, simple, and short. Flow- 

 ers pure white, delightfully fragrant. Petals equal, at first 

 expanding, afterwards recurvate. Filaments five, in- 

 curved, inserted on the petals considerably above their 

 insertion, and shorter than them. Germ three-lobed. Style 

 short. Stigma three-cleft, with lobes recurved. Berry 

 nearly round, about the size of a pea, rarely more than 

 oneof the lobes of the germ comes to maturity, and in that 

 case it is enlarged a little on one side, with the two abor- 

 tive lobes, smooth, when ripe red, one-celled. Seed sin- 

 gle, spherical, attached to the axis, which is now on one 

 side by the abortion of two of the lobes of the germ. In- 

 tegument, a single lucid, somewhat dotted, black crust, 

 adhering firmly to the perisperm. Perisperm conform 

 to the seed, horny, greenish-white. Embryo slender, e- 

 qually thick on every part, white, arched in a large semi- 

 circle round the circumference of the seed most remote 

 from the umbilicus. 



A charming shrub, and easily distinguished by its ace- 

 rose three-fold, ihree-sided, polished, acute, permanent 

 leaves. 



3. A. racemosus. Ed. sp. Willd. 2. 152. 



Shrubby, scandent. Thorns solitary, recurved. Leaves 



