of asparagus
raised at Battersea in a natural, sweet, and well-cultivated soil,
sixteen of which (each one weighing about four ounces) were
made a present to his wife, showing what "solum, coelum, and
industry will effect." The Asparagus first came into use as a food
about 200 B.C., in the time of the elder Cato, and Augustus was
very partial to it. The wild Asparagus was called Lybicum, and by
the Athenians, Horminium. Roman cooks used to dry the shoots,
and when required these were thrown into hot water, and boiled
for a few minutes to make them look fresh and green. Gerard
advises that asparagus should be sodden in flesh broth, and eaten;
or boiled in fair water, seasoned with oil, pepper, and vinegar,
being served up as a salad. Our ancestors in Tudor times ate the
whole of the stalks with spoons. Swift's patron, Sir William
Temple, who had been British Minister at the Hague, brought the
art of Asparagus culture from Holland; and when William III.
visited Sir William at Moor Park, where young Jonathan was
domiciled as Secretary, his Majesty is said to have taught the
future Dean of St. Patrick's how to eat asparagus in the Dutch
style. Swift afterwards at his own table refused a second helping of
the vegetable to a guest until the stalks had been devoured,
alleging that "King William always ate his stalks." When the large
white asparagus first came into vogue, it was known as the "New
Vegetable." This was grown with lavish manure and was called
Dutch Asparagus. For [39] cooking the stalks should be cut of
equal lengths, and boiled standing upwards in a deep saucepan
with nearly two inches of the heads out of the water. Then the
steam will suffice to cook these tender parts, whilst the hard
stalky portions may be boiled long enough to become soft and
succulently wholesome. Two sorts of asparagus are now grown--
the one an early kind, pinkish white, cultivated in France and the
Channel Islands; the other green and English. At Kynance Cove in
Cornwall, there is an island called Asparagus Island, from the
abundance in which the plant is found there.

In connection with this popular vegetable may be quoted the
following riddle:--

"What killed a queen to love inclined,
What on a beggar oft we find,
Show--to ourselves if aptly joined,
A plant which we in bundles bind."

BALM.

The herb Balm, or _Melissa_, which is cultivated quite commonly
in our cottage gardens, has its origin in the wild, o