250 BOTANY OF CROP PLANTS 



Fruit. — This is a red, spherical berry (Fig. 98) with three 

 cells, each of which usually contains two seeds. The perianth 

 is persistent in the fruit. The dark, somewhat triangular 

 seeds run about fifty to a gram. They preserve their germi- 

 nating power for four or five years, and may even retain their 

 vitality when soaked in water for a year. When two years 

 old, the plant begins to produce seed, but the best seed is not 

 produced -until the plant is three or four years old. It is held 

 that the best seed comes from the lower branches of the plant. 



Geographical. — Common asparagus grows wild in Europe 

 and Asia and has escaped from cultivation in this country, 

 often occurring as a weed in fields and along roadsides. The 

 plant has been under cultivation for over 2,000 years. It is 

 cultivated under a wide range of temperature conditions. 

 Although able to withstand drought, it will not endure an 

 extremely wet soil. 



Types and Varieties. — Two sorts of asparagus are sold on 

 the market, blanched asparagus and green asparagus. 

 Green asparagus has a more delicate flavor and is quite gener- 

 ally considered the more desirable. Blanched asparagus has 

 a much thicker stalk than the green sort. It must be under- 

 stood that these two market types of asparagus are simply 

 the result of cultural methods, and may be produced from 

 the same variety. To produce etiolated or blanched aspara- 

 gus, the plants are banked or ridged up with soil just as they 

 appear above ground, so that they must make an additional 

 growth of 4 to 10 inches before they come to light. The 

 shoots that develop in the soil are, of course, whitish for the 

 reason that the green coloring matter (chlorophyll) does not 

 form in the absence of light. 



The number of American varieties of asparagus is small. 

 The most common of these are Conover's Colossal,' Palmetto, 

 Barr's Mammoth, Eclipse and Columbian Mammoth White. 



