60 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



sea. In North America, too, the Asparagus grows 

 among the maize in fields, but in no wild state is 

 it equal in size to the cultivated plant. The 

 Asparagus of our own shores is seldom larger than 

 a goose quill, and not worth cooking. This plant 

 is one of the few on which the praise of ancient 

 and modern writers has been alike bestowed, for 

 Pliny and Cato told of its virtues, and the Greeks 

 have transmitted it to posterity under the name 

 which it has now. It must be observed, however, 

 that the Greeks, like us, had several plants whose 

 young shoots were used as food ; thus their term 

 Asparagus seems to have included not this alone, 

 but a variety of other pulpy stems. Long before the 

 culture of vegetables for the table had become 

 general in this country, this had received attention ; 

 but nowhere do we read of finer plants than were 

 said by Pliny to be reared by the Romans, as three 

 shoots of the vegetable grown at Ravenna are stated 

 by that naturalist to have weighed a pound. 



A large quantity of Asparagus is raised around 

 London, and it is thought by some horticulturists 

 that the plant might be cultivated to advantage 

 on many parts of our coast on soils consisting of 

 little else than sea-sand, and which afford too little 

 nutriment for the growth of other than naturally 

 maritime vegetables. The French call the plant 

 Asperge, and it is much planted around Paris. 



In reading the travels of those who have gone 

 over the sandy deserts of other countries, we find 

 frequent mention of different species of the Aspa- 

 ragus genus, very unlike our own plant, and 

 presenting a formidable barrier to the approach of 

 the passenger. The Cape Asparagus has crooked 

 thorns, which if they hold the traveller by his 



