THE ASPARAGUS 

 AS A DECORATIVE PLANT 



The English kitchen-garden during the months of 

 summer contains many objects of great beauty — gourds, 

 climbing beans, globe artichokes, and the rest — but 

 nothing more graceful than the feathery growths of the 

 edible asparagus. Indeed, this useful plant is fully as 

 handsome to the eye as it is delicious to the taste, and 

 few pot plants look brighter and more attractive at 

 Christmas than young bushes of the common asparagus 

 obtained from seed sown when ripe in the autumn and 

 " brought on" in a warm greenhouse. 



But there are many other species of this genus which 

 are well worth growing for their beautiful foliage and 

 habits. Mr Baker's " Monograph of Asparagaceae," con- 

 tained in the fourteenth volume of the " Journal of the 

 Linnean Society," gives a total of ninety-seven species, 

 but only a few of these have yet become at all well 

 known in England. Most of them are somewhat tender 

 and can only be grown in this country under glass, but 

 a few are hardy. In his "A Gloucestershire Garden" 

 Canon Ellacombe says that he grows Asparagus acuti- 

 folius in the open, though apparently against a protecting 

 wall. This is an evergreen climber, with short, hard, 

 bristly leaflets, growing to a height of four or five feet. 

 It is to be seen growing wild and in abundance along 

 the rocky shores of the Mediterranean. Canon Ellacombe 

 also grows in the open the beautiful and vigorous 

 A. verticillata, a deciduous species, and the well-known 

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