liliace.t;. 1S3 



"Rootstock thick, creopinc:, tliickl}' clotlied with membranous lance- 

 olate scales, and emitting thick fleshy root-fil>res. Stem usually 

 somewhat geniculate, 9 inches to 2 feet long in the wild plant, 

 much branched. Cladodia J- to ^ inch long, in fascicles of three to 

 six or more in the axds of the minute scalelike scarious leaves, which 

 have an herbaceous spur at the base. Flowers solitary or in pairs, 

 drooping, axillary; peduncles recurved, articulated to the pedicel 

 (wliich looks like a drawn-out base of the periantli). Bell of tlie 

 perianth about i inch long, yellowish-olive with reddish streaks. Tlie 

 fruit of the coast plant I have never seen, for though Mr. Charles 

 Bailey was good enough to send me living plants from Cornwall, tliey 

 all died in the severe winter of l'~G6-1867. In the garden asparagus 

 the berries are red, about the size of a red currant; seeds lenticular- 

 orbicular or angular, black with a shghtly shining testa, rugose when 

 dry, about the size of hemp-seed, but flat. 



The young shoots of this plant form the asparagus of the table ; 

 they are very thick and succulent, and sparingly clothed with tri- 

 angular deciduous leaves, very much larger than the persistent leaves 

 at the base of the cladodia. 



I have seen no specimens of Asparagus prostratus {Du Mortier) ; but 

 M. Thielens, to whom I sent a specimen of the Cornwall Asparagus, 

 writes that he believes it to be A. prostratus (Dum.), but cannot be 

 certain in the absence of the seeds, which I have been unable to 

 procure. 



Asparagus. 



French, Asperge officinale. German, Gemeiner Spargel, 



Tliis plant has been cultivated as an esculent since the time of the Romans, and is 

 universally esteemed as such at the present day. The wild plant of the seashore 

 from which our cultivated Asparagus is derived, is strongly diuretic, a property 

 shared in some degree by the blanched shoots of the garden vegetable. Its active 

 principle is an alkaloid called asparacjin. For its successful culture Asparagus requires 

 a very light rich soil, and abundant manuring. It is usually grown in raised beds 

 about four or six feet in diameter, and with trenches two feet deep between them. 

 Upon these beds the seedlings are planted about a foot apart, or the seeds are sown 

 and the young plants afterwards weeded to the same distance. They require an 

 annual top-dressing of finely divided manure, applied in the winter. The heads of 

 Asparagus often attain a veiy large size, and 110 heads have been known to weigh 

 36 pounds. 



GENUS F/._RUSOUS. Linn. 



Flowers dioecious by abortion. Perianth subherbaceous, marcescent- 

 persistent, of 6 free leaves which are at length spreading, the inner 

 leaves smaller than the outer ones. Stamens 3 ; filaments completely 

 combined into an urceolate tube which is inserted on the base of the 

 perianth segments ; anthers in the male flower opposite the exterior 



