ASPARAGUS BERRIES. 185 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

 ASPARAGUS BERRIES. 



MOST English lilies flower in spring or very early 

 summer ; but asparagus is. an exception to the general 

 rule, for it does not come into full blossom before the 

 middle of July, and I see the big green berries are now 

 only just beginning to redden on the sunny side under 

 two weeks of the cloudless skies of August. The world 

 at large hardly knows asparagus at all, except as a 

 succulent spring vegetable ; and that one-sided point of 

 view doubtless makes it rather difficult for most people 

 to recognise in it any traces whatever of the lily family. 

 Yet a genuine lily it really is for all that ; and if you 

 look attentively at these graceful feathery sprays of 

 clustered foliage (they make capital decorations in a 

 specimen vase with summer blossoms), or at these little 

 drooping yellowish-green bell-flowers that hang pensile 

 here and there along the branches, you will see that the 

 lily type is present in all essentials, and that only the 

 prepossessions of the epicure element could ever have 

 prevented one from recognising its true affinities at the 

 first glance. The blossoms, in fact, hang down not 

 unlike Solomon's seal, only that they are composed 

 of separate greenish petals, instead of having a single 



