8 ASPARAGUS 



house plant it has exceeded expedlations, as At stands 

 dry atmosphere better than the older kinds of orna- 

 mental asparagus, and is not particular as to any 

 special position. It delights in a well-enriched soil, 

 rather light in composition, with plenty of drainage, 

 and grows very rapidly. It is decidedly prettj' when 

 in bloom, its little flowers being pure white on short 

 racemes, and the anthers are of a bright orange color. 

 Fig. 3 gives a good idea of its graceful habit. 



A. /alcatzis. — One of the most striking twining 

 plants for a large, temperate house. At the Kew 

 Gardens, in London, England, is an enormous speci- 

 men of this species which is trained against the north- 

 ern staircase, where it has formed a perfecSl thicket 

 two yards through and twenty-five feet high, of long, 

 rope-like, intertwining, spinous, fawn-colored stems, 

 some of them fully fifty feet long, and clothed with 

 wiry, woody branches, beanng whorls of leaves from 

 two to three inches long and neaily one-fourth of an 

 inch wide, falcate and bright green. The young stems 

 are thick and succulent and gray-green, mottled with 

 brown. For large conservatories, and particularly in 

 moist, shady corners, where ordinary climbers will 

 not thrive, this is an ideal plant. It is a native of 

 the tropics of Asia and Africa, as well as the Cape. 



A. laricimis (Fig. 4). — This handsome species 

 has been in the Kew collecftion at least twenty j-ears. 

 It is grown in the succulent house, where, from a 

 vigorous root system, it sends up annual stout succu- 

 lent shoots, which grow to a length of about tweh-e ) 

 feet, and when fully developed are decidedly oma- 



