182 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Herbs or shrubs (sometimes twining), often with creeping rhizomes 
and fasciculated root-fibres. Stems branched. Leaves scalelike, pellucid, 
producing in their axils numerous abortive filiform or subulate barren 
peduncles (cladodia), which perform the function of leaves. Flowers 
small, more or less tinged with green or brown, on 1-flowered 
peduncles, which are articulated near the middle. 
Dr. Mayne gives this derivation of the name: 'Aezapayos, from a abund., exapacew, 
to divide; because it is divided or lacerated in gathering; or a priv., oxeipw, to sow, 
because the stalks are produced, not from the seed, but from the body of the plant. 
SPECIES I-ASPARAGUS OFFICINALIS. Linn. 
Pirate MDXV. 
Stem herbaceous, round, without spines, much branched. Cladodia 
clustered, terete, setaceous, smooth, flexible. Leaves scalelike, shortly 
spurred at the base. Peduncles articulated beyond the middle. Pedicel 
(perianth tube) shorter than the bell of the perianth. Anthers not 
mucronate, nearly as long as the filament. 
Var. a, campestris. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. X. Tab. DX VIII. 
Billot, Fl. Gall. et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2926. 
Stem tall, erect. Cladodia slender, long, very flexible. 
Var. 6, maritimus. 
Pirate MDXV. 
A. prostratus, Du Mort. Florul. Belg. p.178. Thielens in Bul. Soc. Bot. Belg. Vol. I. 
Tab. II. (?) 
Stem short, prostrate or decumbent. Cladodia short, thick, slightly 
flexible. 
Var. occasionally as an escape from cultivation, but scarcely na- 
turalised. Norton Spit, Isle of Wight. Var. & very local. Cornwall 
in several places, especially on Asparagus Island, at Kynance Cove. 
One of the forms occurs on the Chesel Bank, Dorset; formerly near 
Gravesend and Greenwich, Kent, but now lost; Wallasea Island and — 
Foulness Island, 1851, also formerly near Harwich, Essex; said to 
occur on the Sussex, Norfolk, and Lincoln coasts; Giltar Point, Pem-— 
broke; and the Isle of Anglesea; and on the Lancashire coast, but 
Mr. Watson believes it originated there from cultivation. About 
Wexford and Waterford, Ireland. 
England, Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer. 
