Asparagus. | LXXXV. LILIACEA. 459 
V. ASPARAGUS. ASPARAGUS. 
Herbs, with a creeping, matted rootstock, and annual branching 
stems, with clusters of fine, short, subulate leaves (theoretically shown 
to be deformed branches called cladodes), in the axils of short scarious 
scales (the true leaves). Flowers small, axillary. Perianth of 6 distinct 
segments. Stamens 6. Ovary 38-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell. 
Styles single, with a 3-lobed stigma. Fruit a berry. 
A considerable genus, chiefly African, with a few south European or 
Asiatic species, all readily known by the foliage. 
1. A. officinalis, Linn. (fig. 1035). Common A.—Stems erect and 
much branched, usually 1 to 2 feet high in the wild state, attaining 
4 to 5 feet when cultivated, and elegantly feathered by the numerous 
clusters of fine subulate cladodes, about half an inch long. Flowers 
small, of a greenish white, hanging on slender pedicels, 2 or 3 together 
in the axils of the principal branches, many of them with stamens 
only. Berries small, red, and globular. 
In maritime sands, or in sandy plains, in central and western Asia, 
all round the Mediterannean, and up the western coasts of Europe to 
the English Channel. In Britain, confined to the western and south 
- western shores of England, and to the coast of Wexford and Waterford 
in Ireland. Fl. summer. 
VI. RUSCUS. RUSCUS. 
Shrub-like herbs, with a perennial rootstock, hard, green, branching 
stems, and alternate, stiff, evergreen, parallel-veined leaves (theoreti- 
cally shown to be short leaf-like branches, cladodes), in the axils of 
minute, often microscopical scales (the real leaves), Flowers small, 
mostly unisexual, apparently sessile on the middle of the leaf. Perianth 
of 6 distinct segments. Stamens united in a tube, with 3 or 6 anthers. 
Ovary 3-cefled, with 2 ovules in each cell. Style simple, with an 
undivided stigma. Fruit a berry. 
A small European and North African genus, easily known among 
European Monocotyledons by its stiff, shrub-like habit. 
1. R. aculeatus, Linn. (fig. 1036). Butcher's Broom.—A rigid, dark 
green, much branched plant, 2 to 3 feet high; the stems said to be 
biennial, although apparently shrubby. Cladodes numerous, ovate, all 
terminating in a prickly point. Flowers small and white, apparently 
sessile in the middle of what is really the upper surface of the cladode, 
though it is usually turned downwards by a twist of the cladode at its 
base; and a close examination will show that the flower is in fact 
borne on a pedicel arising from the axil of the cladode and closely 
adnate to its surface, with a minute bract under the flower. Berries 
red, 
In woods and bushy places, in west central and southern Europe, 
extending eastward to the Caucasus and northward to Belgium, but 
not into Germany. Abundant in some of the southern counties of 
England, but not truly wild in northern England, Scotland, or Ireland. 
Fl. spring. 
