120 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



frequently helped to sell a wagon load of vegetables, the 

 gardener making its sale conditional upon the purchase 

 of other articles. Asparagus is not only a wholesome 

 article of food, but it is a pleasant diuretic and aperient, 

 and is often used as an alterative or "purifier of the 

 blood." When prescribed medicinally it is, as a decoc- 

 tion, made by boiling two ounces of the root in one quart 

 of water. There are some sixty or seventy species of as- 

 paragus, of which the above named is the only edible 

 one. While the shoots of the majority of the asparagus 

 plants are green, some plants produce purple-topped 

 shoots, owing probably to some modification of the leaf- 

 green, or chlorophyll. Such plants cannot be considered 

 even as varieties, as they occur in every planting of 

 whatever kind of asparagus seed, and the peculiarity is 

 not transmitted as a regular distinctive feature. 



Difference of opinion exists among horticulturists in 

 regard to the question of varieties of this vegetable, some 

 contending there are no varieties of Asparagus officinalis. 

 They claim that growers, in several localities, have 

 brought the cultivation of asparagus to such a state of 

 perfection, as to have developed a decided superiority in 

 the plant; that, as like produces like, the seed of such 

 plants are preferable and will continue to give a superior 

 product. They hold that, until deteriorated, the Con- 

 over's Colossal, the Ulm, the Argenteuil, and others, are 

 only improved strains, while others claim them to be dis- 

 tinct varieties. Unlike the varieties of other vegetables, 

 the different sorts of asparagus are distinguished neither 

 by shape, nor color of leaf or flower, nor by taste, nor 

 by any other character, save size, and when removed from 

 favorable conditions of climate, soil, manure, and man- 

 agement, they deteriorate and are undistinguishable 

 from plants grown from seeds of the poorest kind. As- 

 paragus is a dioecious plant, that is, the male (staminate) 

 and female (pistillate) flowers are on separate roots. 



