LILY TRIBE 241 



told also that a slice or two of boiled pumpkin would re-invigorate it." Pliny- 

 said that Nature intended Asparagus to grow wild that all might eat thereof. 

 In the old gardens of our country the Asparagus Avas much valued. "It 

 is," says Parkinson, "a principal delectable sallet herb, whose young shootes, 

 when they are a good handfull high above the earth, are cut an inch within 

 the ground, Avhich being boyled, are eaten, Avith a little vinegar and l)utter, 

 with great delight." The seeds removed from the berries, after drying, are 

 said to make a good substitute for coffee, and to be scarcely less highly- 

 flavoured than that of the Arabian berry ; while a paper-maker of Ghent 

 has stated that an excellent paper might be made of the refuse of the vege- 

 table, and might, with still greater economy, be made by mingling a pulp of 

 Asparagus fibre with that obtained from beetroot. 



2. Butcher's Broom (Buscus). 



Common Butcher's Broom {R aculcdtus). — Stem green, erect, much 

 branched ; leaves minute, falling early, their functions performed by numerous 

 egg-shaped, pointed cladodes, bearing the small flower on their upper surface; 

 rootstock fleshy, creeping. This, which is the only British shrub among 

 endogenous plants, is locally abundant in bushy heaths and woods in the 

 south of England, where the soil is of sand or gravel ; but it is not a com- 

 mon plant in all parts of the kingdom ; and though seen occasionally in 

 Scotland and Ireland, is not believed to be truly wild there. It is a rigid 

 shrub, which seems as if winter's roughest wind would hardly bend it ; and 

 its flat dark, stiff, evergreen cladodes have little succulence. These cladodes 

 are really shoots that have been flattened and made leaf-like ; during Feb- 

 ruary and March they have a very singular appearance, from having a little 

 greenish flower growing from about the middle of the upper sui'face. We 

 have no other native plant floAvering in this manner ; but owing to the small 

 size of the blossom, it is often overlooked. Bishop Mant says of it : — 



" Mid barren lieatlis the Butcher's Broom, 

 On thorn-tipt leaves, its lovely bloom 

 Infixes, when tlie central eye 

 Shoots to a purple nectary ; 

 Bright mid the greenish petals shows, 

 And dark green leaf whereon it blows." 



By the end of August or the beginning of September the shrub may 

 attract more notice by the round scarlet berries, each as large as a small 

 cherry, seated on the cladodes; though, as far as the observation of the author 

 has extended, these fruits are very uncertain, in one autumn being in pro- 

 fusion, while, in the next season, scarce one is to be found in the same wood 

 where they glistened so brightly in the previous year. The boughs, when gay 

 with these berries, form a very pretty addition to the bouquet of Christmas. 

 The name of Butcher's Broom originated in the habit of sweeping the shops 

 where meat is kept by a broom made of its boughs ; and in Italy branches 

 of the plant tied together are commonly used for sweeping houses. The 

 shrub has, besides, several old familiar names, as Ruscus, Bruscus, Knee- 

 holme, Kneeholly, Kneehulver, Pettigree, and Jews' Myrtle ; and the French 

 call it Fragon piquant, Bidsqnnenx (spiny box), and also Pdit-honx (little holly) ; 



III.— 31 



