72 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



A. acutifolius Linn, asparagus. 



Mediterranean regions. The young shoots are eaten in Italy, Spain, Portugal and 

 by the Greeks in Sicily.^' * They are thin, bitter and often stringy. 



A. adscendens Roxb. 



Himalayas and Afghanistan. From this plant is made, according to Modeen Sheriff, 

 the genuine sufed mush, called in the Deccan shakakul-hindi and used as a substitute for 

 salep.' 



A. albus Linn, garden-hedge. 



Western Mediterranean region. The yoting heads are cut from wild plants and 

 brought to table in Sicily, but they form but a poor substitute for cultivated asparagiis.* 



A. aphyllus Linn. 



Mediterranean region. The young shoots are collected and eaten in Greece.' 



A. laricinus Burch. 



A shrubby species of South Africa. Dr. Pappe ' says that it produces shoots of 

 excellent tenderness and aromatic taste. 



A. officinalis Linn, asparagus. 



Europe, Caucasian regions and Siberia. This plant, so much esteemed in its culti- 

 vated state, is a plant of the seashore and river bants of southern Eiirope and the Crimea. 

 It is now natiu-alized in many parts of the world. In the southern parts of Russia and 

 Poland, the waste steppes are covered with this plant. Unger ' says it is not found either 

 wild or ciiltivated in Greece, but Daubeny * says at the present time it is known under 

 the name of asparaggia, and Booth ' says it is common. Probably the mythological men- 

 tion of the asparagus thickets which concealed Perigyne, beloved of Theseus, the plant, 

 in consequence, being protected by law among the lonians inhabiting Caria referred 

 to another species. 



Cultivated asparagus seems to have been unknown to the Greeks of the time of 

 Theophrastus and Disocorides, and the word asparagos seems to have been used for the 

 wild plant of another species. The Romans of the time of Cato, about 200 B. C, knew 

 it well, and Cato's directions for culture would answer fairly well for the gardeners of 

 today, except that he recommends starting with the seed of the wild plant, and this seems 

 good evidence that the wild and the cultivated forms were then of the same type as they 

 are today. Columella," in the first century, recommends transplanting the young roots 

 from a seed-bed and devotes some space to their after-treatment. He offers choice of 



> Hooker, W. J. Journ. Bot. 1:211. 1834. 

 2 Mueller, P. Sel. Pis. 54. 1891. 

 ' Kckering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 736. 1879. 

 * Hooker, W. J. Journ. Bot. 1:211. 1834. 

 ' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 165. 1879. 

 Mueller,?. Sel. Pis. 55. 1891. 

 ' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 358. 1859. 

 ' Daubeny, C. Trees, Shrubs, Anc. 127. 1865. 

 Booth. W.B. Treas. Bot. 1:101. 1870. 

 ' Columella lib. 9, c. 3. 



