Ornamental Species

A. medeoloides (Myrsiphyllum asparagoides), popularly known as

Smilax.--For many years this has been, and is yet, one of the most

commonly grown and the most serviceable of the plants used by florists

as "green." It is readily grown from seed in the greenhouse. While a few

other species of asparagus have been close rivals, it is yet unexcelled

for many purposes of floral decorations.



A. plumosus (the plumy asparagus).--A very graceful climbing plant

which for finer decoration has largely taken the place of smilax, its

foliage being finer than that of the most delicate ferns, and will last

for weeks after being cut. The whole plant is of a bright, cheerful

green. Its branches spread horizontally, and branch again in such a

manner as to form a flat, frond-like arrangement, the leaves being very

numerous, in clusters of about a dozen, bright green, and one-half inch

long. A native of South Africa, where it climbs over bushes and branches

in moist situations. There are several named varieties of this, most of

which have originated in gardens. The most distinct are A. tenuissimus

and A. plumosus nanus, the fern-like appearance of which is seen in

Fig. 2.






A. Sprengeri.--This is one of the best and most attractive house

plants of recent introduction. It is of graceful form and habit when

grown as a pot plant, but it is equally well suited for planting in

hanging baskets. Its fronds are frequently four feet long, of a rich

shade of green, and very useful for cutting, retaining their freshness

for weeks after being cut. As a house plant it has exceeded

expectations, as it stands dry atmosphere better than the older kinds of

ornamental asparagus, and is not particular as to any special position.

It delights in a well-enriched soil, rather light in composition, with

plenty of drainage, and grows very rapidly. It is decidedly pretty when

in bloom, its little flowers being pure white on short racemes, and the

anthers are of a bright orange color. Fig. 3 gives a good idea of its

graceful habit.



A. falcatus.--One of the most striking twining plants for a large,

temperate house. At the Kew Gardens, in London, England, is an enormous

specimen of this species which is trained against the northern

staircase, where it has formed a perfect thicket two yards through and

twenty-five feet high, of long, rope-like, intertwining, spinous,

fawn-colored stems, some of them fully fifty feet long, and clothed with

wiry, woody branches, bearing whorls of leaves from two to three inches

long and nearly one-fourth of an inch wide, falcate and bright green.

The young stems are thick and succulent and gray-green, mottled with

brown. For large conservatories, and particularly in moist, shady

corners, where ordinary climbers will not thrive, this is an ideal

plant. It is a native of the tropics of Asia and Africa, as well as the

Cape.






A. laricinus (Fig. 4).--This handsome species has been in the Kew

collection at least twenty years. It is grown in the succulent house,

where, from a vigorous root system, it sends up annual stout succulent

shoots, which grow to a length of about twelve feet, and when fully

developed are decidedly ornamental. The stems are perennial, terete,

dark brown, woody, one-half inch in diameter at the base, very spinous,

freely branched, and branches zigzag and gray, the leaves in clusters

one-fourth inch apart, hair-like, one and one-half inches long, bright

green, persistent. Flowers axillary, many in a cluster, small,

campanulate, white. Berries globose, dull red, one seeded, one-sixth of

an inch in diameter. Common in various parts of South Africa. It is an

excellent pillar plant.



A. racemosus.--This species is spread throughout the tropics of Africa

and Asia; the Cape form of it is represented at Kew under the name of

variety tetragonus, as shown in Fig. 5. This is a vigorous grower,

with woody stems nine feet long, prickly at the base, fawn colored,

freely branching above, each branch having at its base a sharp spine

three-quarters of an inch long. The leaves are of a gray-green hue,

four-angled, one-quarter of an inch long. Flowers in racemes two inches

long, whitish, very fragrant. Berry red, globose, pulpy, one-seeded. An

excellent climber for rafters, pillars, etc., growing vigorously under

ordinary treatment. Its root system is a dense mass of tubers.









A. sarmentosus (Fig. 6).--An elegant evergreen species from South

Africa, where it grows freely in moist situations, forming dense, brushy

stems with short prickles, and studded with white, starry, fragrant

flowers, which are followed with bright scarlet, pea-like berries; has

stems four feet high, freely branched and clothed with dark green flat

leaves three inches long. It is also grown in pots and baskets for

the Cape-house, and when in flower it is greatly admired.



A. Broussoneti.--A beautiful hardy perennial climber from the Canary

Islands, growing ten feet high; feathery foliage and scarlet berries. In

the autumn this is very ornamental.



Among the most noteworthy of other ornamental species are: A.

Aethiopicus, Africanus, Asiaticus, Cooperi, crispus,

declinatus, decumbens, lucidus, retrofractus, scandens,

tenuifolius, trichophyllus, umbellatus, verticillatus,

virgatus, etc., etc.