A S P A R A G U S officinalis.
Common fîfparagm.
H K X .A N JD B . J u i Mpnogynidp
G en. Char. Cor. in 6 fegments, eredt, inferior, Berry
of 3 cells, with 2 feeds in each.
S pec. Char. Stem herbaceous, generally eredt,round.
Leaves briftle-ffiaped, flexible. Spines none.
Stipules folitary.
S yn. Afparagus officinalis. Linn. Sp. P I. 448. Hudf.
F I. An, 14 5 . With. Bot. A rr. 3 5 2 .
Afparagus. R a ii Syn. 267.
r
P E W perfons would fuppofe the diminutive herb before
us to be the origin of our luxuriant garden Afparagus, commonly
called Sparrow-grafs, and very vulgarly Grafs. It grows
wild in maritime places in the fouth of England, abundantly
on the pebbly beach oppofite the ferry going from Weymouth
to Portland Ifland, from whence we received it by favour of
A. B. Lambert, Efq. flowering in Auguft.
Root perennial, creeping, with very long thick Ample fibres,
as in moft of this natural order. Stem eredt, occafionally procumbent,
round, fimple, and bearing alternate fcales (or ftipulae
without leaves below, in the upper part branching in a panicled
alternate manner. Leaves in tufts, very narrow and briftly, but
flexible, not rigid or fpinous. Stipulæ folitary, membranous,
triangular, acute, the upper ones ovate and jagged. We have
never (as Dr. Stokes alfo remarks) found the inner Itipulæ mentioned
by Linnaeus. Flowers from the axillae of the branches,
on capillary fimple ftalks, drooping. Not finding their inner
fegments reflexed, as the generic character of Linnaeus requires,
we have altered that character. The flowers appear
hermaphrodite, though in fome the ftamina, in others the
piftillum, are occafionally abortive. Style deeply 3-cleft.
Berry red, fometimes in a poor foil perfecting but one feed in
each cell.