34 ASPARAGUS. 



(c) the flowers ; (d) the calyx opened to show the stamens ; (e) 

 the fruit cut horizontally showing the cells. 



The Asparagus is a denizen of most parts of Europe, having 

 been observed in the sandy plains of Poland, on the banks of 

 the Wolga, and even in Siberia. It is found in several parts of 

 the south and south-west of England, especially near Kynance 

 Cove, in Cornwall ; and in the marshes about two miles from 

 Bristol. It flowers in July and August. 



The name appears to have been derived from the Greek 

 o.aTTc&fcx.yrji;, which was formed from a-'^a.pa.craco, to tear, (in allu- 

 sion to the spines of some species,) and that, according to Theis, 

 from spe7i, a spine, in Celtic. 



The wild plant is much more diminutive than the cultivated 

 variety. It is eaten by cows, goats, and sheep ; horses and 

 swine refuse it. 



Culture. " Asparagus is generally grown in beds four feet broad, and 

 in rows a foot or eighteen inches apart, by nine inches in the row. The 

 plants are either raised from the seed where they are to remain, or raised 

 on a seed bed the preceding year and transplanted. The value of the crop 

 depends on the soil being dry, sandy, trenched two and a half or three feet 

 deep, and powerfully manured. During winter the beds are covered with 

 dung or litter to protect them from frost. In spring this is raked oflf into the 

 alleys and dug in, while the beds are stirred with a fork to admit the air, 

 heat, rain, &c., to stimulate the rising shoots. Asparagus from seed will be 

 fit to cut the third year, in perfection to the fifth, and wiU continue good 

 for ten or twelve years. The season for cutting is from the middle of April 

 to the middle of June." Loudoii's Encyclopcsdia of Plants. 



Qualities. — The uses of Asparagus as a culinary vegetable 

 are well known. It was highly esteemed by the Greeks and 

 Romans *. Cato and Pliny speak of it in the warmest terms of 

 praise. 



The roots have a sweetish and somewhat glutinous taste, with 

 a little roughness : they give a slight tinge of red to blue paper. 

 The juice of the young shoots has been found to contain wax, 

 albumen, phosphate and acetate of potass, mannite, a green resin, 

 and a crystalline principle, named asparagine. The crystals of 

 asparagine are very slightly soluble in cold, rather more so in 

 boiling water, and quite insoluble in rectified spirit. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — Most persons perhaps have 



* They boiled it so quickly, that to be done " sooner than Asparagus " 

 became a proverb. Suetonius records that Augustus often said " Velociii* 

 quam asparagi co^uuntur.'" 



