ASP 



ASP 



The s]iccics arc numerous, but few have yet 

 been inti-odiiced into cultivation. Those which 

 have are, 1. A. aliens, White Aspalathus; 

 2. A. Indicii, Indian Aspalathus j 3. A. ar- 

 gentca, Silvery Aspalanthus. 



The first has the stem shrubby, upright, with 

 a brown bark full of chinks; the extreme twigs 

 somewhat lomentose. The leaves five together, 

 sh<;:-n and spreaduig a little at ihc tip, of a silky 

 whiteness. The bunches of flowers terminating, 

 silkv-white, small, several, glomerate, and pu- 



dun'cled. The calvx is 



„„i- 



;icent. No braete 



under the calyx, but one under the pedicel. The 

 corolla tomentose and white. It flowers here in 

 July. 



The second species is a shrul), with slender 

 hard round twigs; branches alternate, short. 

 The leaves are alternate, leaflets oblong, obtuse, 

 sessile, broader towards theend, bluntish, smooth, 

 the side-ones a little shorter. The peduncles 

 from each of the axils longer than the leaf. The 

 leiTumes half as long again as the peduncles. It 

 grows about five feet high. The flowers are of 

 a pale red colour ; they appear in August, but 

 are seldom succeeded by pods here. It is a na- 

 tive of the East Indies. 



The third rises about four feet high, with a 

 shrubby stalk dividing into slender branches. 

 'The flowers are purple, downy, and grow thinly 

 on the branches ; ihty come out late in the 

 summer. The leaves are in threes or in bunches, 

 lanceolate, silky, as is the whole plant. Flowers 

 in spikes, or else scattered, lateral, villose. It 

 flowers in July and August. 



Culture. — The propagation in these as well as 

 tlie other species of this genus may be effijcted 

 by sowing the seeds, when they can be procured, 

 in the autumnal season, in pots of light earth, 

 and immediately plunged in a very gentle tan 

 hot-bed, being removed into another moderate 

 hot-bed in the" spring, for the purpose of bring- 

 ing the plants forward. They may also be sown 

 in'the spring; but in this case they will mostly 

 require to be'placed in an old tan-bed in autumn, 

 and to have a fresh hot-bed in the spring, as 

 when sown at the above period they rarely rise 

 the same year. After the plants are become 

 sufficiently strong they should be planted out 

 into small pots, separately filled as above, and 

 plunged into a gentle hot-bed, and when well 

 roott-cl be gradually accustomed to the influence 

 of the ope^i air, being placed in warm sheltered 

 situations till the period of taking them into the 

 green-house. They should have but very sparing 

 supplies of water during the winter season, as 

 they are apt to be destroyed by it. 



ASPARAGUS, a genus containing avaluable 

 plant of ihe esculent kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Hexandria 

 ]\l(jnogi//iia, and ranks in the natuial order of 

 Suriiicntaci'CB. 



Tlie characters are: that it has no calyx: the 

 corolla consists of six petals, cohering by the 

 claws, oblong, erected into a tube; three alter- 

 nately interior, reflex at theend, and permanent; 

 the stamina have six filiform filaments inserted 

 into the petals, erect, shorter than the coroHi; 

 the anthers z:z ioundish; the pistillum is a tur- 

 omatc germ, three-cornered; the stylevery short ; 

 the stigma a prominent point ; the periearpium 

 is a globular berry, umbilicated with a point, 

 three-celled ; the seeds are two, round, angular 

 on the inside, and smooth. 



'The species cultivated is A. offic'mulis, Com- 

 mon Asparagus. 



It has a large perennial root, composed of 

 many succulent round bulbs forming a kind of 

 transverse tuber, whence spring numerous stems, 

 which are round, smooth, green, stiff, and 

 branched, in the wild plant a foot and a half 

 high or more, but in the garden plant much 

 higher; branches alternate, thinly subdivided 

 into alternate twigs with a few leaves between 

 them: at their base is a single stipule, which is 

 membranaceous, brownish, triangular-ovate, ta- 

 pering to a point, the base also running down 

 into a pointed prominence: there is also a sti- 

 pule at the base of each bundle of leaves, which 

 is cordate-ovate, pointed, ragged at the edge, 

 and often cracking at the sides, its base in- 

 closing the whole bundle. Linnaeus mentions 

 two smaller stipules with this. The leaves are 

 three, four, or five in a bundle, of diflferent 

 sizes, linear or bristle-shaped, green with a 

 white point, smooth, four or five lines in length. 

 The peduncles are axillary, pendulous, solitary 

 or two together, one-flowered, sometimes two- 

 flowered ; they have a tubercle or joint above 

 the middle, and are protected at the base by the 

 stipule of the twigs. The corolla is yellowish 

 green; the berries red, with the remains of the 

 corolla at the base. 



Citlliire. — In the cultivation of this useful 

 vegetable the plants are invariably raised from 

 seed, which, after three or four years' growth, 

 become in a proper condition for producing full- 

 sized heads of Asparagus; the same roots con- 

 tinuing to afford supplies annually during seve- 

 ral weeks in the sunnner season, as well as 

 during the winter and early spring months, by 

 beiniT forced in pits or frames constructed for 

 the purpose; the shoots remaining after the 

 summer cuttings run up to stems, flower, and 

 produce perfect seed in the autumn. 



The soils on which Asparagus may be culti- 

 vated to the greatest advantage are those of the 



