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ASPARAGINOUS PLANTS. 



These comprehend those with pulpy stems, buds and bottoms of 

 compound flowers ; and, unlike brassica, salads, &c., they are subjected 

 to culinary preparation before being eaten. All young shoots were 

 formerly as asparaginous plants. From their nature and growth, 

 their cultivation is somewhat more expensive than most others used 

 as succulent food. 



ASPARAGUS, officinalis. C. 6. O. 1. Asphodelese. sp. 2-32. Dh. 

 P. 4 ft. A well known edible plant in this country and Europe. It 

 grows wild in many places, but in this state it is only a few inches 

 high and a 4lh of an inch thick; whereas in its cultivated state it is 

 4 or 5 feet high. No vegetable has undergone greater improvement 

 by cultivation. It is one of the oldest as well as choicest luxuries of 

 the garden and of the season. It has a perennial root and an annual 

 stem and is brought forward in hot beds or houses ; it is in season in, 

 May and June. It is raised from seeds ; the plants remaining in the 

 ground 3 years before being cut, after which they afford a regular sup- 

 ply. The head, if cut transversely, displays a beautiful example of 

 vegetable anatomy. The shoots are exogenous, growing from the sur- 

 face like the palms, unlike common trees which grow from the centre. 

 The head of the young plant is edible only so far as the part extends 

 which is to flower and produce leaves. Thus the part eaten contains 

 the rudiments of hundreds of branches and thousands of leaves. It 

 is thought to promote appetite but it is not very nourishing being 

 chiefly a luxury. It is esteemed a diuretic ; it gives a peculiar odor to 

 the urine ; and sedentary operatives and others resort to it when 

 troubled with symptoms of gravel. Its peculiar qualities are due to a 

 principle called asparamide, formerly called asparagin, which it con- 

 tains. 



The young shoots are boiled 20 minutes, and when soft, are served 

 up with toast and melted butter. When well seasoned, they likewise 

 make excellent soups. The markets of our chief cities are well fur- 

 nished with this vegetable in its season. A person near London has 

 under constant cultivation 80 acres of asparagus. There are 3 or 

 4 varieties, all very similar. It is a native of cold climates, being in- 

 digenous in Russia and there eaten as grass by cattle. It is found 

 wild on the seashore, but it was cultivated and eaten by the Greeks 

 and Romans, who were so skilful in its cultivation that 3 shoots 

 weighed a pound. 



A sandy loam, deeply trenched and manured is prepared for it. 

 The seeds should be fully ripe and from the strongest and most com- 

 pact shoots. For a bed 4 by 6 feet a quart of seed is required ; and 

 for a bed 4 by 30 a pint is sown. It is transplanted a year old. in 4 

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