GARDEN ASPARAGUS 



abundantly where wild gardening is practised on any liberal scale. 

 An open grove is often devoid of interest because there is nothing 

 under the trees but grass; but such woodland can be transformed 

 into a fairy land simply by keeping out the cattle and restoring the 

 herbaceous growth. Nothing is better to accomplish this than 

 to bring back the old flowers that have been driven out. Of 

 these, in northern Ohio, Trillium grandijlomm is one of the best; 

 and along with it, flourishing under similar conditions, should be 

 Smilicina, Solomon's Seal, Bellwort, Mitella, Tiarella, Wild Phlox, 

 and Adder's Tongue, together with all the little groundlings that 

 will venture back as soon as conditions are safe. 



GARDEN ASPARAGUS 



Asparagus officinalis. 



Asparagus, the ancient Greek name; the meaning obscure. 



A perennial herb, cultivated for the edible young shoots which ap- 

 pear in early spring. Europe. May and June. 



Stem. — Rising from thick and matted rootstocks, two to three feet 

 high, succulent and simple with fleshy scales when young, becoming 

 branched when old. 



Leaves. — The narrow, thread-like, so-called leaves are really branch- 

 lets, acting as leaves, clustered in the axils of little scales which are the 

 true leaves. These are well shown on the shoot. 



Flowers. — Small, greenish-yellow, in the axils of the leafy branchlets. 



Perianth. — Six-parted, spreading above. 



Stamens. — Six; filaments thread-like; style short; stigma three-lobed. 

 Berry spherical, red, three-celled; cells two-seeded. 



The Garden Asparagus has been a table vegetable for more 

 than two thousand years. Native to southern Europe and western 

 Asia, it was well known both to the Greeks and to the Romans. 



Structurally the plant is especially interesting, as it gives an 

 example of small branchlets which appear and behave like leaves. 

 The real leaves are scales which are much in evidence on the 

 edible shoots and may be seen at the base of the leaf-like branch- 

 lets looking like stipules or bracts. 



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