1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



105 



From the Horticultural Ri 

 ON THE CULTURE OF MILK-WEEIX — ( Ascle- 



pias Syriaca.) 



Some four or five years since, in a conversation 

 with George Manners, Esq. Ihe British Consul for 

 Massachusetts, on the various kinds of edible ve- 

 getables, cultivated in our gardens, he observed 

 that, during a recent visit to Canada, he was in- 

 formed that, the young shoots of Ihe milk-weed 

 were used as a substitute for asparagus, and 

 asked me if I had ever heard of their being cook- 

 ed in the railed (States. I replied, that 1 perfectly 

 recollected, when a boy, my mother often had 

 them gathered from the fields and road-sides, with 

 the dandelion, shepherds' sprouts, nettles, and 

 other pianis, which were collected as greens; but 

 that I had never seen the plant thus used else- 

 where, or heard it named as a culinary vegetable; 

 but that I certainly would make an experiment in 

 its cultivation, and as to iis qualities, as an addition 

 to our garden pot herbs. 



Having collected f lie s^eed in the autumn, it was 

 sown early in the spring in drills, and covered an 

 inch deep. They came up freely in four or five 

 weeks, and when ihe plants were iwo years old, I 

 took up a portion of the roots, and set them cut 

 about eight inches apart, in a trench six inches 

 deep. The ground had been manured and tho- 

 roughly dug over, previously to formingthe trench. 

 The following spring, when the shoots were four 

 or five inches high, they were cut, tied, up in 

 bunches, boiled and served up wilh mellcd butter, 

 Like asparagus; and they were as tender, and to 

 my tasie quite as delicious a vegetable, resemb- 

 ling in flavor the youngest and most delicate string 



As the plant is very hard}*, exceedingly prolific, 

 easily cultivated, and such a valuable addition to 

 our early vegetables, I consider a bed of it nearly 

 as desirable as one. of asparagus. 



No better mode of cultivation can be adopted, 

 than that for asparagus, as described by Mr. 

 Chandler, in his interesting, instructive, and able 

 article, which appeared in the third number of the 

 Horticultural Register* — except the roots of the 

 milk-weed should not be covered more than five or 

 six inches deep. 



# * « # # 



Asclepias (Swallow-wort,) is a numerous genus 

 of plants, there being forty-two species, which 

 have been described by botanists, two of which 

 only are found in Europe, but three in South 

 America, while there are eighteen indigenous to 

 the United Stales, and the others are divided be- 

 tween the West Indies and Africa. Many of the 

 varieties are cultivated as ornamental plants in 

 England and France, but the following kinds, 

 natives of this country, are considered the most 

 beautiful, besides being more hardy than those of 

 more southern climes; still many of the latter are 

 considered worthy of the green-honse. 



1. dfuschata, so called by Bartram, for its 

 strong and agreeable musk scent, is peculiar to the 

 natural meadows of South Carolina, Georgia, and 

 Florida. It is alow plant, of not. more than five 

 or six inches in height, with flowers of a pale 

 green color, inclining to yellow. 



* Republished in Farmers' Register, p. 675 Vol. II. 

 Vol. Ill— 14 



2. Ve ansa has leaves elegantly variegated with 

 white and crimson veins, and the stems terminate 

 in an umbel of pale flesh-colored flowers. 



3. Pulchra — water-silk-weed — has nearly erect 

 stems, tour or five feet high; umbsls very small; 

 (lowers crimson purple. Grows on low, wet land, 

 by the side of ponds. 



4. Variegata — variegated. Leaves rough, 

 umbels compact and come out, from the side of the 

 stalk; flowers of an herbaceous odor. 



5. Nivea — white, or almond-leaved. Stalks 

 two feet high, and of a dark green. Leaves deep 

 green above, and pale beneath, smooth arid rather 

 s t i til Flowers green, with white nectaries. 



6. Incarnata — flesh-colored — has several up- 

 right stalks about two feet high, at the top of 

 which are produced close umbels of purple flowers. 

 Blooms in August. 



7. Di'cumbens. The stalks are declining, 

 hairy, a foot and a half high; leaves narrow; um- 

 bels compact, at the extremity of the branches; 

 flowers a bright orange color. 



8. t'criicilloia. Stalks slender, upright; um- 

 bels at the extremity of the stems; leaves in 

 whorls of four, five, and six together; flowers 

 small and of a greenish white color. Found in 

 Roxbury and Dedham; blooms in July. 



9. Tuberosa — butterfly-weed. Root large, 

 fleshy, branching and somewhat fusiform, but it is 

 only by comparison with other species that it can 

 be called tuberous; stems numerous, growing in 

 bunches from the root, hairy and dusky red; flow- 

 ers numerous, erect, and of a beautiful bright 

 orange color; grows in Woburn and Newton; 

 blooms in August. 



10. Gbiusifolia — blunt-leaved. Stems erect, 

 supporting a terminal umbel, at a distance from 

 the leaves, which are opposite, ovate, heart 

 shaped at the base flowers large, of a greenish 

 white, tinged with red; it is found in Cambridge 

 and Mount Auburn; blooms in July. 



11. Phyioloccoides — poke-leaved. A tall, large 

 flowering species, of a delicate appearance; stem 

 erect, four or five feet high; leaves large; umbels 

 nodding, flowers large, petals green, nectaries 

 white or flesh colored; grows in low grounds, 

 blooms in June. 



12. Purpurescens — dark-flowered. Stem erect; 

 flowers of a dark crimson purple; grows in Cam- 

 bridge and Newton, but is rare. 



13. Qitadrifolia — four-leaved. A delicate 

 species, growing in dry woods; stem about a foot 

 high; flowers flesh colored; is found in Roxbury 

 and Brookline, and blooms in June. 



14. VeridifoMa — Green flowered. An inele- 

 gant species, with small greenish umbels; is found 

 in Leicester; blooms in July. 



For the description of the third and sixth pre- 

 ceding species, I am indebted to Dr. Bigelow's 

 excellent work, on the plants in the environs of 

 Boston. There is a beautiful colored engraving 

 of No. 9, and a more particular account of it, in 

 his other most able and splendid publication, call- 

 ed Medical Botany. 



15. Arnoena — oval-leaved. Stalks from a foot 

 and a half to three feet high; at each joint are 

 two large leaves, which are blunt, thickish, stiff, 

 smooth, with purple nerves; umbels rise from the 

 top of the stalk and some of the upper axils; 

 flowers of a bright purple color. 



16. Rubra — red-flowered. Stem upright; um- 



