182 ENGLISH BOTANT. 



Herbs or shrubs (sometimes twining), often with creeping rhizomes 

 and fasciculated root-fibres. Stems branched. Leaves scah4ike, pelkicid, 

 producing in their axils numerous abortive filiform or subulate barren 

 peduncles (cladodia), which perform the function of leaves. Flowers 

 small, more or less tinged with green or brown, on 1 -flowered 

 peduncles, which are articulated near the middle. 



Dr. Mayno gives this derivation of tlie name : 'Aairdpayoi, from a abund., (nrapaaaw, 

 to di\nde ; beeauso it is divided or lacerated in gathering ; or a priv., arrelpo), to sow, 

 because the stalks are produced, not from the seed, but from the body of the plant. 



SPECIES L-ASPARAGUS OFFICINALIS. Linn. 

 Plate MDXV. 



Stem herbaceous, I'ound, without spines, much branched. Cladodia 

 clustered, terete, setaceous, smooth, flexible. Leaves scalelike, shortly 

 spurred at the base. Peduncles articulated beyond the middle. Pedicel 

 (perianth tube) shorter than the bell of the perianth. Anthers not 

 mucronate, nearly as long as the filament. 



Var. «, campestris. 



Belch. Ic. PI. Germ, at Helv. Vol. X. Tab. DXYIH. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 292G. 



Stem tail, erect. Cladodia slender, long, very flexible. 



Var. 3, maritimus. 



Plate MDXV. 



A. prostratus, I'm MoH. Plorul. Belg. p. 178. Thielens in Bui. Soc. Bot. Belg. Vol.1, 

 Tab. II. (?) 



Stem short, prostrate or decumbent. Cladodia short, thick, slightly 

 flexible. 



Var. a occasionally as an escape from cultivation, but scarcely na- 

 turalised. Norton Spit, Isle of Wight. Var. /3 very local. Cornwall 

 in several places, especially on Asparagus Island, at Kynance Cove. 

 One of the forms occurs on the Chesel Bank, Dorset ; formerly near 

 Gravesend and Greenwich, Kent, but noAV lost ; AYallasea Island and 

 Foulness Island, 1851, also formerly near Harwich, Essex; said to 

 occur on the Sussex, Norfolk, and Lincoln coasts ; Giltar Point, Pem- 

 broke ; and the Isle of Anglesea ; and on the Laucasliire coast, but 

 Mr. Watson believes it originated there from cultivation. About 

 Wexford and Waterford, Ireland. 



EnQ-land, Ireland. Perennial. Late Sunnner. 



