l6 ASPAkaGUS 



In one case, at least, the author has also obser\-ed 

 that a plant which has been barren of seed at first 

 changed into a seed-bearing plant the following year. 

 Similar changes in the sexuality of strawberries have 

 been observed under certain conditions. These facts 

 may explain, in a measure, the difficulty experienced 

 in raising permanently sterile asparagus plants. 



Asparagus acutifolius. — A native of Souther^i 

 Europe and Northern Africa. It has a fleshy root-'^ 

 stock, hard, wir>^, brown stems, five to seven feet high, 

 with rigid branches three to six inches long, thickly 

 closed, with tufts of gray-green, hair-like, rigid leaves, 

 which in exposed situations are almost spinous. Flow- 

 ers yellow, a quarter of an inch in diameter, fragrant. \ 

 The young sprouts are tender, and, when cooked, of '\' 

 a peculiar aromatic flavor. In their native home they 

 are used like the cultivated kind. 



A. aphyllus. — Indigenous to Greece, where the 

 young shoots are commonly used as food, especially 

 during Lent. 



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