Refugium Botanicum.} [April, 1870. 
TAB. 214. 
Natural Order Liu1Ack&. 
Sub-order ASPARAGE. 
Genus Asparacus, Linn. 
A. vireatus (Baker). Fruticosa, erecta, 4—5-pedalis, caule primario 
dimidio inferiore nudo, dimidio superiore copiose divaricatim 
ramoso, ramulis gracilibus virgatis angulatis sulcatis, foliis minutis 
inconspicuis lanceolatis membranaceis calcare nullo modo spinoso, 
cladodiis ternis setiformibus mucronatis erecto-patentibus internodis 
subeequantibus facile deciduis, floribus sparsis solitariis e nodis 
plerisque efoliatis nutantibus, pedunculis brevibus gracilibus infra 
medium articulatis.—A. sylvaticus, Burchell, MSS., non Willd. 
A native of Cape Colony. 
Stem fruticose, four to five feet high, quite erect, the lower 
half naked, clothed sparsely with the small membranous lanceo- 
late old leaves, the upper half copiously divaricately branched. 
Lower main branches subpatent, twelve to eighteen inches long. 
Ultimate branchlets very long and slender, drooping, trigonous, 
the faces deeply channelled. Leaves (or stipules) of the branchlets 
lanceolate, membranous, very minute, the spur not at all indu- 
rated. Cladodia three to a fascicle, three-eighths to half an inch 
long, about equalling the internodes, erecto-patent, mucronate, 
not at all compressed, easily deciduous. Flowers sparingly pro- 
duced from the nodes of the branchlets, always solitary, drooping, 
with the cladodia of the node from which they spring generally 
but not invariably abortive. Pedicels very slender, three to four 
lines long, articulated below the middle. Perianth an eighth of 
an inch deep, pale green, tinged with purplish brown. Stamens 
slightly exceeding the divisions. Style longer than the ovary. 
Fruit a small round berry. 
The only other Cape species with fruticose erect spineless 
non-scandent stems is Asparagopsis scoparia of Kunth, from 
which this will be readily distinguished by the characters given. 
Tab. 214.— 1, portion of branch, with a pair of flowers; 2, single 
flower; 3, pistil; 4, horizontal section of ovary: all magnitied —J..G. DB. 

A neat-growing much-branched species of Asparagus, received 
from the Cape of Good Hope, collected there by Mr. ‘I’. Cooper. 
It requires cool greenhouse treatment, and should be grown in 
rich loam, and supplied while growing with plenty of water. It 
is propagated by divisions of the root and by seed.—W. W. S. 
