26 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



CHAPTER III. 



GEEEN VEGETABLES. 

 ASPARAGUS. 



Asparagus officinalis, L., is a native on the coasts of Wales, Cornwall, 

 and Dorset, but is rare. It was well known to and cultivated by the 

 ancients. Pliny devotes a chapter to its cultivation, mentioning that 

 the dead stems were burnt down, the ashes being thus restored to the 

 bed. All writers, from Pliny to Parkinson (seventeenth century), allude 

 more to its supposed medicinal virtues than to its use as an article of 

 diet. Dodoens figured it in 1559, and all subsequent herbalists have also 

 done so. He adds, " The shoots are boyled and eaten in salet with oyle, 

 salt and vinegar." To this Gerard (1597) adds: " Sodden in flesh 

 broth." 



At the present day, in the southern parts of Russia and Poland, 

 the waste steppes are covered with it, and it is there eaten by horses 

 and cattle.* With regard to the chemical analysis of asparagus, 

 Professor Church found 89'8 per cent, of water, 3'0 per cent, of 

 albuminoids, 5*9 per cent, of sugar, etc. Hence the nutrient ratio 

 is 3'0 : 5*9, the nutrient value being 9*3. 



"FRENCH" ASPARAGUS. 



A plant, the spring shoots of which, consisting of the inflorescences 

 in bud, are sold in the markets of Bath under the above name. It is 

 botanically known as Ornithogalum pyrenaicum, L. It occurs in 

 woods and copses of southern counties. It is allied to the " Star of 

 Bethlehem " (0. umbellatum, L.), a naturalized wild flower. The 

 present writer considers it very insipid. 



AUBERGINE OR EGG-PLANT. 



This is known botanically as Solanum Melongena, L. It has long 

 been known in India, but not in Europe until the close of the sixteenth 

 century. In North Africa it was known in the ninth century, and is 

 now cultivated throughout the Nile Valley (De Candolle). It is not so 

 commonly used in England as on the Continent. It is eaten cooked. 



BROAD BEAN. 



This was called Vicia Faba by Linnaeus, but is now better known 

 as Faba vulgaris, Moench. After an exhaustive examination of all the 



* Treasury of Botany, s.v. 



