16 ASPARAGUS 
In one case, at least, the author has also observed 
that a plant which has been barren of seed at first 
changed into a seed-bearing plant the following year. 
Similar changes in the sexuality of strawberries have 
been observed under certain conditions. ‘These facts 
may explain, in a measure, the difficulty experienced 
in raising permanently sterile asparagus plants. 
Asparagus acutifolius—A native of Southern 
Europe and Northern Africa. It has a fleshy root- 
stock, hard, wiry, brown stems, five to seven feet high, 
with rigid branches three to six inches long, thickly 
closed, with tufts of gray-green, hair-like, rigid leaves, 
which in exposed situations are almost spinous. Flow- 
ers yellow, a quarter of an inch in diameter, fragrant. 
The young sprouts are tender, and, when cooked, of 
a peculiar aromatic flavor. In their native home they 
are used like the cultivated kind. | 
A. aphyllus.—Indigenous to Greece, where the 
young shoots are commonly used as food, especially 
during Lent. 
