early all
parts of the civilized world. How long the plant was used as a vegetable
or as a medicine is likewise uncertain, but that it was known and highly
prized by the Romans at least two centuries before the Christian era is
historically recorded. According to Pliny, the Romans were already aware
of the difference in quality, that grown near Ravenna being considered
best, and was so large that three spears weighed one pound. The elder
Cato has treated the subject with still greater care. He advises the
sowing of the seed of asparagus in the beds of vine-dressers' reeds,
which are cultivated in Italy for the support of the vines, and that
they should be burned in the spring of the third year, as the ashes
would act as a manure to the future crop. He also recommends that the
plants be renewed after eight or nine years.

The usual method of preparing asparagus pursued by the Roman cooks was
to select the finest sprouts and to dry them. When wanted for the table
they were put in hot water and cooked a few minutes. To this practice is
owing one of Emperor Augustus's favorite sayings: "_Citius quam asparagi
coquentur_" (Do it quicker than you can cook asparagus).

While the indigenous asparagus has been used from time immemorial as a
medicine by Gauls, Germans, and Britons, its cultivation and use as a
vegetable was only made known to the people by the invading Roman
armies. But in the early part of the sixteenth century it was mentioned
among the cultivated garden vegetables, and Leonard Meager, in his
"English Gardener," published in 1683, informs us that in his time the
London market was well supplied with "forced" asparagus.

The medicinal virtues formerly attributed to asparagus comprise a wide
range. The roots, sprouts, and seeds were used as medicine. The fresh
roots are diuretic, perhaps owing to the immediate crystalizable
principle, "asparagine," which is said to be sedative in the dose of a
few grains. A syrup made of the young shoots and an extract of the roots
has been recommended as a sedative in heart affections, and the _species
diuretica_--a mixture of asparagus, celery, parsley, holly, and sweet
fennel--was a favorite preparation for use in dropsy and gravel. Among
the Greeks and Romans it was one of the oldest and most valued
medicines, and to which most absurd virtues were attributed. It was
believed that if a person anointed himself with a liniment made of
asparagus and oil the bees would not approac