14-8 Short Communication. 



straw during the night, and in bad weather. In April, the 

 frames are taken away, and the dung is removed from the paths, 

 which are again filled with the earth which was thrown on the 

 beds. The plants are then allowed to rest a year ; but the 

 second season they may again be forced, and so on alternately, 

 as long as the produce is satisfactory. The asparagus thus ob- 

 tained is called white asparagus by the Parisian gardeners, as 

 the heads have very little colour; but there is another kind, 

 which is called green asparagus, which may be raised by the 

 following method : — > 



To force Green Asparagus. — From December to March, beds 

 of hot dung, 4 ft. wide and 2 ft. high, are made successively as 

 required ; and these beds are covered 3 or 4 in. deep with ve- 

 getable mould, or rich black earth ; on this are placed the frames, 

 which are covered with straw to increase the heat. When the 

 beds are in a proper state, they must be planted with asparagus 

 plants three or four years old ; or with old plants from beds 

 about to be destroyed, the roots having been first reduced to an 

 equal length, say 8 or 9 in. The roots are placed in the beds 

 on end, so close together as to support each other, and so as to 

 have their buds all nearly of the same height, mould being 

 pressed between the plants with the hand, so as to fill up all 

 vacuities. The frames and sashes are then put on, and the 

 asparagus soon begins to push. The shoots are small, but very 

 green. As the roots do not continue throwing up shoots more 

 than a fortnight or three weeks, it is necessary to make but few 

 beds at a time, to renew them often. This green asparagus is 

 chiefly used in Paris, cut into small pieces, as a substitute for 

 green peas. (Le Bon Jardinier for 1834, p. 187.) 



Art. XV. Short Communication. 



THE Seed of the common Cowslip, sown in the garden, it is well 

 known, produces numerous varieties ; particularly many with 

 blossoms more or less of a red colour, which may be considered 

 as the first approach towards a polyanthus, and are often very 

 brilliant and beautiful. A red-blossomed cowslip in my garden 

 this year produced some very large heads : I had the curiosity 

 to count the individual blossoms on one of the stalks, and found 

 them amount to 173; there were two other stalks about the 

 same size, besides nineteen smaller ones. Thus, there were 

 produced, by one cowslip root, the large number of 685 pips or 

 blossoms; viz. three large bunches containing 173 each, and 

 nineteen smaller ones producing together 166. — W. T. Bree. 

 Allesley Rectory, Aug. 20. 1833. ^ 



