ASPARAGUS BERRIES. 189 



leaf twists at the stalk, and so turns its upper surface 

 downward to the ground. In time the female flowers 

 grow into brilliant scarlet berries, which look as if they 

 were gummed on to the lower side of the leaves ; and 

 these berries contain a couple of little hard-shelled 

 nutlets, which are dispersed by the assistance of birds, 

 as in most other similar cases. 



Now, in butcher's broom, almost all these leaf-like 

 branches still bear flowers and berries on the mid-rib of 

 their expanded surface ; but there are a good many 

 barren branches on each bush, which act as leaves pure 

 and simple ; while a few scales beneath each such 

 branch represent the original flat blades of the primitive 

 lily ancestor. In asparagus, the same process has been 

 carried just one step further. The young spring shoots 

 here bear flat mauve scales, not unlike in shape to an 

 abortive grass-blade ; but on the upper branches these 

 scales become very small and inconspicuous indeed, 

 while from their angles there project a number of long 

 needle-like green points, which form the practical work- 

 ing foliage of the plant at the present day. Every here 

 and there, three or four of them bear a little drooping 

 greenish lily-flower each at their summit, especially near 

 the lower end of each branchlet ; but by far the greater 

 number spring in little clusters of four or five together 

 from the axil of a scaly leaf, without any flowers at all 

 at their pointed ends. They are, in fact, abortive 

 flower-stalks, like the barren branches on the butcher's 

 broom : only in this case the vast majority of flower- 

 stalks are thus abortive, and only a very small number 

 devote themselves to their proper function of producing 

 blossoms. 



