188 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XIX. 



of another plant ; a plan which has been adopted with the wild 

 cucumber even. There is another kind of wild cabbage, also, 

 the lapsana, 44 which has become famous since the triumphs of 

 the late Emperor Julius, in consequence of the songs and jokes 

 of his soldiers more particularly ; for in the alternate lines sung 

 by them, they used to reproach him for having made them live 

 on lapsana at the siege of Dyrrhachium, and to rally him upon 

 the parsimonious scale on which he was in the habit of recom- 

 pensing their services. The lapsana is nothing more than a 

 wild cyma. 45 



CHAP. 42. WILD AND CULTIVATED ASPAEAGUS. 



Of all the garden plants, asparagus is the one that requires 

 the most delicate attention in its cultivation. We have already 46 

 spoken at considerable length of its origin, when treating of 

 the wild plants, and have mentioned that Cato 47 recommends 

 it to be grown in reed-beds. There is another kind, again, of 

 a more uncultivated nature than the garden asparagus, but less 

 pungent than corruda ; 48 it grows upon the mountains in dif- 

 ferent countries, and the plains of Upper Germany are quite 

 full of it, so much so, indeed, that it was a not unhappy remark 

 of Tiberius Caesar, that a weed grows there which bears a re- 

 markably strong resemblance to asparagus. That which grows 

 spontaneously upon the island of Nesis, off the coast of Cam- 

 pania, is looked upon as being by far the best of all. 



Garden asparagus is reproduced from roots, 49 the fibres of 

 which are exceedingly numerous, and penetrate to a consider- 

 able depth. When it first puts forth its shoots, it is green ; 

 these in time lengthen out into stalks, which afterwards throw 



44 The same as the " chara." prohably, mentioned by Caesar, Bell. Civ. 

 B. iii. Hardouin thinks that it is the common parsnip, while Clusius and 

 Cuvier would identify it with the Crambe Tatarica of Hungary, the roots 

 of which are eaten in time of scarcity at the present day. Fee suggests 

 that it may belong to the Brassica napo-brassica of Linnaeus, the rape- 

 colewort. See B. xx. c. 37. 



45 Or cabbage-sprout. 



46 In B. xvi. c. 67. The Asparagus officinalis of Linnaeus. 



47 De Ee Eust. c. 161. 



48 Or wild sperage. See B. xvi. c. 67 ; also B. xx. c. 43. 



49 " Spongiis." Fee is at a loss to know why the name " spongia" 

 should have been given to the roots of asparagus. Probably, as Faceiolati 

 says, from their growing close and matted together. See the end of this 

 Chapter. 



