>(*!?| 
THE GARDENERS’ MAGAZINE. 
asparagus: 
ITS LITERARY AND 
CULINARY ASSOCIATIONS. 
(Continued from page 332.) 
Mode of Culture. 
4 nd now having taken the literary and 
culinary sides, I should like to give you 
the other side, viz., the cultiva/tion of the 
tiint for the market, its native habits, 
etc. Loudon, in his “Encyclopaedia of 
Gardening,” about 1835, gives us much in¬ 
teresting information on this score. He 
says that asparagus belongs to a class of 
esculents which may be considered as com¬ 
paratively one of luxury. It occupies a 
hirge proportion of a gentleman’s garden, 
often an eighth part, but enters sparingly 
into that of the cottager. A moist atmo¬ 
sphere is congenial to asparagus, which is 
a seashore plant. Asparagus officinalis, L. 
English botany, t. 339, AsphodeKse, B.P. 
Asperge, French; Spargel, German; As- 
pergie, Dutch; Asparago or Sparagio, Ita¬ 
lian; Esparrago, Spanish. It is a peren¬ 
nial plant, found in stony or gravelly situa¬ 
tions near the sea, but not very common. 
It grows near Bristol, in the Ifde of Port¬ 
land, and sparingly in Seaton Links, near 
Edinburgh. The roots consist of many 
succulent round knobs, forming together a 
kind of tuber, from which numerous erect 
round stems arise, with alternate branches. 
are very small, linear, and bristle-sh^-ped, 
the flowers of a yellowish-green^/ and odor¬ 
ous, are produced from June to August, 
and the berries of a yellowish-red. The 
whole plant has a very elegant appearance. 
Many of the steppes in the South of Russia 
and in Poland are covered with this plant, 
which is there eaten by the horses and 
oxen as grass. It is cultivated, to a great 
extent, in the neighbourhood of Paris, and 
to a large size in the neighbourhood of 
jlm and Augsburg, on the banks of the 
D^ube, where the soil is a calcareous sand, 
three or four feet deep, and the subsoil 
always saturated with water. In the 
neighbourhood of London it is cultivated 
to a greater extent than anywhere else in 
the world, and chiefly at Deptford and 
Mortlake. Some growers at these places, 
and especially the latter, have above one 
Hundred acres each. The most celebrated 
grower of that day (about 1835) was Gray- 
®<>n, of Mortlake, who produced shoots 
nearly half an inch in diameter. 
Coming down to later times, we find that 
w cult flourishes in East Anglia, and 
mongst our greatest growers we may men- 
tion Mr. Harwood, of St. Peter’s Street, 
J^lchester. He generally carries first 
Hoyal Horticultural So- 
Spring show, and treasures the 
menmry that our late King Edward VII. 
tbnf exhibit at the Temple Show 
^at the happy grower was sent for. Mr. 
greatest 
a most successful growers of the day, but 
varieties. His plan is 
thpf*^ plants flat at first, and when 
un^ntfi^^ years old they are taken 
sandv ? P^**®*?! i" the new bed. Soil, 
the “Sateen inches in depth over 
asparagus beds should be 
November. Salt should 
tends te ^ it makes the earth cold, and 
•>nndlc^.k,f®P the asparagus back. Some 
sixteen pounds** Temple Show weighed 
one 1^’ <!oinprised of only 
a?e beat sorts to grow 
Connover’s Col^sal, 
In'???- and Argenteuil. 
__n this country a.snarat 
heads being usually small and stringy, with¬ 
out sufl&oient succulence. For this purpose 
an asparagus bed is dug up, and the plants 
transferred to a place heated with manure, 
where they come up in a fortnight or three 
weeks; but as the roots are always much 
injured by the operation of transplanting, 
the little success that attends this method 
is easily accounted for. In many parts of 
the North of Europe, especially about Riga, 
a far better mode is adopted. The forc¬ 
ing takes place in the asparagus beds 
themselves without distairbing the roots; 
the trenches are filled with the hot manure, 
and the beds aie covered with the 
same material about six inches deep. If 
of forced asparagus, pieces of bamboo, or 
any other hollow tubes, should be put over 
the shoots when they first make their ap¬ 
pearance. The latter will acquire a length 
of eighteen inches without losing their 
tenderness. H. C. Philbbick. 
WORMIA BURBIDGEI. 
An evergreen stove shrub well worthy of 
consideration for its foliage alone. The 
elliptic-shaped leaves are large, dark green^ 
and of a stout leathery texture. The 
flowers are borne in an unbranched panicle, 
and are about three inches across; the 
colour is bright yellow. The individual 
ROSE WHITE TAUSENDSOHON. 
A nuTP white variety of the popular rose-coloured -nmltiflora rcse Tau^ndschon. 
^ A M. R.H.S., May 20. Messrs. W^m. Paul and Son, Waltham Cross. 
See page 393. 
the weather is very severe the beds are blooms do not remain long in beauty. They 
also covered with frames, but this is rarely are composed of five petals, and bear a 
necessary in England. Treated thus, as- somewhat close resemblance to some of the 
paragus is as fine as if it waited till May hibbertias; indeed, the wormia is a mem- 
to nmke its appearance. But when this her of the same order, namely Dilleniacese. 
metb-cd is practised the heads cannot be cut The specific name perpetuates the memory 
down at the natural time in the same season, of the late Mr. F. W. Burbidge, so long 
In order to recover from the effects of identified with Trinity College Gardens, 
forcing the plants must be allowed to Dublin. In the years 1877 and 1878 he 
; freely as possible during the visited Borneo, the main object being the 
ng summer, so that they may form introduction of Nepenthes Rajah, which was 
grow J 
succeeding si— , « ... - 
a new supply of food for the support of successfully accomplished, while many new 
country^ asparagus is frequently the heads of the succeeding spring. When plants were found, notably this Wormia. 
DHt seldom with much success the it is wished to have exceedingly large heads It was first distributed in 1885. K. 
