ation of which had been brought to a high state of development
many centuries before the Christian era, there is little opportunity for
originality. All that the author has endeavored in this little volume
has been to collect, arrange, classify, and systematize all obtainable
facts, compare them with his own many years' experience in asparagus
culture, and present his inferences in a plain and popular manner. Free
use has been made of all available literature, especially helpful among
which has been the Farmers' Bulletin No. 61 of the United States
Department of Agriculture, by R. B. Handy; also bulletins of the
Missouri, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland,
Massachusetts, and South Carolina and other experiment stations; the
files of _American Agriculturist; Gardener's Chronicle_, from which
descriptions of several ornamental species by William Watson were
condensed; Thome's "Flora von Deutschland;" "Eintraegliche
Spargelzucht," von Franz Goeschke; "Braunschweiger Spargelbuch," von
Dr. Ed. Brinckmeier; "Parks and Gardens of Paris," by William Robinson;
"Asparagus Culture," by James Barnes and William Robinson; "Les Plantes
Potageres," by Vilmorin-Andrieux; the works of Peter Henderson, Thomas
Bridgeman, J. C. Loudon, and others.

The author desires to express his grateful acknowledgments to Mr.
Herbert Myrick, editor-in-chief of _American Agriculturist_ and allied
publications, for critically reading the whole manuscript; to Prof. W.
G. Johnson, Charles V. Mapes, C. L. Allen, A. D. McNair, Superintendent
Southern Pines Experimental Farm; Prof. W. F. Massey, Robert W. Nix,
Robert Hickmott, Charles W. Prescott, Joel Borton, and all others who by
their help, suggestions, and advice have aided him in the preparation of
this work.

F. M. HEXAMER.

_New York, 1901._

ASPARAGUS

I

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The word "asparagus" is said to be of Persian origin. In middle Latin it
appears as _sparagus_; Italian, _sparajio_; old French, _esperaje_; old
English, _sperage_, _sparage_, _sperach_. The middle Latin form,
_sparagus_, was in English changed into _sparagrass_, _sparrow-grass_,
and sometimes simply _grass_, terms which were until recently in good
literary use. In modern French it is _asperge_; German, _spargel_;
Dutch, _aspergie_; Spanish, _esperrago_.

The original habitat of the edible asparagus is not positively known, as
it is now found naturalized throughout Europe, as well as in n