ASFARAGINOU3 PLANTS. 275 



plants, the leaves or roots of which are used as escu- 

 lents. For it is only a comparatively small portion 

 of the whole plant which is here appropriated; arid 

 that too, most generally, when in a young and un- 

 developed state. Asparaginous plants must, there- 

 fore, always belong to luxurious, rather than to eco- 

 nomic management. 



ASPARAGUS Asparagus officinalis stands fore- 

 most in this list, as having been of most ancient cul- 

 tivation, and as being most esteemed in every age. 

 It was held in much favour by the Grecians, and is 

 handed down to us by its present name in the wri- 

 tings of Dioscorides. The Romans must have been 

 particularly skilful in its cultivation, since, according 

 to Pliny, three shoots of that grown in Ravenna 

 weighed a pound, which is considerably more than 

 the weight of the largest English asparagus. 



Asparagus has a perennial root and annual stalks. 

 The root is fleshy and succulent, composed of round 

 knobs, which are united together into a kind of 

 tuber. This is seated deep in the ground, and is not 

 liable to be much affected by the winter frosts. From 

 this root, which contains turions or eyes somewhat 

 analogous to those on the tuber of the potato, the 

 stems rise up in the early part of the spring, and are 

 cut for use when only a few inches above the ground. 

 There are few subjects in vegetable anatomy which 

 display more beauty in their structure, than may be 

 disclosed in a transverse section of a head of asparagus. 

 The shoot of an asparagus grows only from the ex- 

 tremity, and works or vegetates from the centre, and 

 not from the surface as in trees. Thus it pushes up 

 through the soil en masse, if it may be so expressed. 

 The branches, which lie so thick together, safe and 

 well protected under their scaly leaves, soon begin 

 to be developed, and are drawn out until the whole 

 plant, with its numerous thread-like leaves, assumes 



