stones should be introduced in every course of 
ashlar-facing: they should be in quantity equal to 
one-sixth of the face of the wall, and of a length 
to reach at least one foot into the back, but the 
more the better. Every bond stone should, if 
possible, be placed in the middle between those 
in the course below. When the jambs of piers 
are coursed with ashlar, or when the jambs are 
of one entire height, every alternate stone next 
the aperture in the former case, and next to the 
jambs in the latter, should bond through the 
wall; and every other stone should be placed 
lengthwise, in each return of an angle, not less 
than-the average length of anashlar. Bond stones 
should have no taper in their beds, nor should 
their ends, or the ends of the return stones, be 
ever less than 12 inches. Olosers should never be 
admitted, unless they bond at least two-thirds of 
the thickness of the wall. All upright joints 
should be square or at a right angle with the 
| face for about two inches back, after which they 
may widen a little towards the back. The upper 
| and lower beds of every stone should be quite 
level or parallel to each other for their whole 
breadth. All the joints, for the distance of about 
one inch from the face, should be cemented with 
| fine mortar, or with a mixture of oil-putty and 
white-lead ; the former is practised at Edinburgh, 
the latter at Glasgow; at the latter place the 
| joints of the polished ashlar work are uncom- 
monly fine and accurate. ‘The remainder of the 
ashlar, and all the rubble, should be laid in good 
lime mortar; that for the rubble should be made 
| with coarser sand. All the stones should be laid 
_ in their natural beds. Wall plates should always 
be placed on a number of bond stones, to which 
they may be either joggled or fixed by iron 
cramps. 
ASH-WEDNESDAY. The first day of Lent, 
a fast forty days long, which the Catholic church 
orders to be kept before the feast of Easter. It 
derives its name from the ancient and still exist- 
ing custom of putting ashes upon the head, as a 
symbol of humble repentance for sin. It was 
formerly, and, to a certain extent, is still the 
custom in Catholic countries, to confess on Ash- 
Wednesday, to chastise one’s self during Lent, 
and to partake of the Lord’s supper at Haster. 
ASPALATHUS. A genus of small evergreen, 
ornamental, greenhouse shrubs, of the pea tribe. 
| Between eighty and ninety species are known to 
| botanists; and about thirty of these have been 
| Introduced to Great Britain. 
The Indian species 
is a native of the East Indies, and was introduced 
in 1759; and all the other introduced species are 
natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and, except in 
eleven instances, are of quite recent introduction. 
The galium-like species is an evergreen trailer ; 
| and all the other species are evergreen under- 
shrubs, of from 14 to 6 feet in height, but prin-. 
cipally of 2and 3 feet. The flowers of the Indian 
species are red; those of the whitish species are 
white; those of the globular species are orange ; 
| ——— =: = =: 
ASPARAGUS. 
and those of all the other introduced species are 
yellow. All the flowers are subsessile. Most 
of the introduced species have their leaves in 
fascicles or bunches; but four—the silky, the 
callous, the mucronate, and the long-peduncled— 
have their leaves trifoliate. Several of the spe- 
cies have a considerable resemblance, in their 
general appearance,-to asparagus, and popularly 
bear the names of African broom, shrubby tre- 
foil, and narrow-leaved laburnum ; and the whole 
genus.was formerly placed by botanists with the 
robinias or false acacias. The branches of the 
Indian species are slender; the leaves grow by 
fives close to the branches ; and the flowers grow 
singly upon long footstalks. The stalk of the silky 
species is shrubby and ramified ; the branches are 
slender ; the leaves are white, silky, and trifoliate; 
and the flowers are yellow and downy, and grow 
thinly on the branches. The branches of the ear- 
liest - introduced Cape species are slender ; the 
trifoliate leaves are numerous and clustered ; and 
the flowers grow in woolly heads at the end of 
the branches. All the species are easily raised 
from seeds; and most may, witha little care, be 
propagated from young cuttings.—Hortus Britan- | 
nicus.—Encyc. of Plants —Miller—Marshall. 
ASPARAGINE. The peculiar chemical prin- 
ciple of asparagus. It occurs in the juice of the 
asparagus leaf and stem, and in that of marsh- 
mallow and liquorice root; and, on being separ- 
ated, it becomes crystalline. The crystals of it 
are hard, brittle, and colourless, and have the 
form of rhomboidal prisms. 
slightly nauseous. When asparagine is boiled 
for some time with hydrated oxide of lead or 
magnesia, it is resolved into ammonia and a dis- 
tinctive acid called aspartic; and the combina- | 
tions of this acid with the bases are called aspar- || 
tates, —and, when the taste of the base does 
not interfere, they have the taste of the juice of 
meat. 
ASPARAGUS. A genus of perennial plants, 
of the asphodel family. Thirty-two species have 
been described by botanists; and twenty-eight 
of these—one indigenous, and all the others 
exotic—are cultivated in Great Britain. 
asparagus of our gardens. Six species—the long- 
leaved, the bitter, the wood, the whorl-leaved, 
the maritime, and the Dahurian, from respec- 
tively Siberia, France, Hungary, Caucasus, the 
Caspian Sea, and Dauria—are hardy deciduous || 
herbs; three species—the declined, the decum- 
bent, and Broussonets, the first and the second 
from the Cape of Good Hope, and the third from 
the Canaries—are greenhouse evergreen herbs ; 
six species—the climbing, the retrofracted, the 
stipulaceous, the drooping, the horrid, and the 
twiggy, from the Cape of Good Hope, Africa, 
Ceylon, and the south of Europe—are tender 
evergreen twiners ; eight species—the sickle- 
leaved, the racemose, the Asiatic, the Ethiopian, 
Its taste is cooland | 
‘The | 
common or officinal species grows wild on the | 
coasts of England, and is the well known culinary | 
