180 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



represent the original flat blades of the primitive lily 

 ancestor. In asparagus, the same process has been car- 

 ried just one step further. The young spring shoots 

 here bear flat mauve scales, not iinlike in shape to an 

 abortive grass-blade ; but on- the upper branches these 

 scales become very small and inconspicuous indeed, while 

 from their angles there project a number of long needle- 

 like green points, which form the practical working 

 foliage of the plant at the present day. Every here and 

 there, three or four of them bear a little drooping green- 

 ish lily-flower each at their summit, especially near the 

 lower end of each branchlet ; but by far the greater 

 number spring in little clusters of four or five together 

 from the axil of a scaly leaf, without any flowers at all at 

 their pointed ends. They are, in fact, abortive flower- 

 stalks, like the barren branches on the butcher's broom ; 

 only in this case the vast majority of flower-stalks are 

 thus abortive, and only a very small number devote 

 themselves to their proper function of producing blos- 

 soms. 



It must not be imagined, however, that the asparagus 

 once passed through the butcher's broom stage ; the re- 

 semblance between the two plants is rather analogical 

 than strictly genetic. Both, doubtless, are ultimately de- 

 scended from simple typical lily ancestors, which had suf- 

 fered dwarfing of the true leaves through their enforced 

 restriction to dry habitats ; and with both only those 

 individuals have finally survived which happened to 

 diverge in directions adapted to their new mode of life. 

 The butcher's broom has made its way by developing 

 stiff, prickly, and expanded branches, whose broad 

 green wings do duty instead of leaves ; the asparagus 

 has attained the same end by producing vast numbers of 

 small thread-like flower-stalks, only a small proportion 



