SECT. LXXV.—ON ASPARAGI OR YOUNG SHOOTS.
Blites, lettuces, orachs, mallows, and beets have the plant juicy, but the shoot dry. The turnip, mustard, radish, cress, pellitory, cabbage, and other hot things, have the plant of a dry, but the shoot of a juicy nature. The shoots of the bushy shrubs, both the marsh and garden, and that of the bryony, are stomachic and diuretic, but of little nourishment, yet when digested they are more nutritious than those of pot-herbs. Such also are the shoots of the ground-bay.
Commentary. See Suidas (in Voce); Galen (de Alim. Facult.); Humelbergius ad Apul. (de Med. Hist. 84.) Our author’s account of the Asparagi is abridged from Galen. He remarks that the young shoots of the cabbage, called cymæ, are particularly tender. Apicius directs them to be prepared with cumin, salt, old wine, and oil; to which pepper, borage, and the like may be added.
On the Asparagi, see Athenæus. (Deipnos. ii.)
The plant now commonly known by the name of asparagus is said by Simeon Seth to be so nutritious that it deserves to hold an intermediate place between pot-herbs and flesh. He remarks, that it is diuretic, and imparts its smell to the urine. The wild asparagus is called corruda by Cato, Columella, and Pliny.