ASPARAGUS BERRIES. 187 



of autumn. If we hacked it down at present we should 

 have no asparagus to speak of next season. 



Now, everybody has noticed that the young shoots 

 which form the eatable part of asparagus are covered by 

 small pointed purplish scales ; and these scales are, in 

 fact, almost the only true leaves that the plant ever puts 

 forth in its present condition. But as it grows older it 

 begins to branch off into numerous sprays to right and 

 left ; and these sprays are covered with clusters of 

 feathery green spikes, closely resembling foliage, and 

 not at all unlike the needles of firs and some other 

 conifers. In reality, however, these apparent leaves are 

 abortive flower-stalks ; while the only true leaves on 

 the branches are some very small and almost micro- 

 scopical scales around the point where the needles 

 diverge from the stem that bears them. It is true the 

 little wiry branches do*all the work that real leaves 

 ought to do : they are quite green, and they act as 

 digesters of carbon from the air for the plant ; so that it 

 seems at first sight a hard saying to be told that they 

 are at bottom only flower-stalks. Yet so certain is that 

 curious fact, that even long before evolution was dreamt 

 of, all technical botanists had fully made up their minds 

 that the apparent leaves of asparagus and its allies must 

 be theoretically described as ' abortive pedicels.' And 

 this is probably the way that such a strange freak of 

 nature first came about. 



Asparagus is a simple species of lily which has 

 taken (in its wild state) to growing in- very dry and 

 sandy soils. Now, the lily type of leaf, as we all know, 

 is a long thin succulent blade, extremely ill-adapted for 

 dry or sandy places. Hence all the lilies which are 



