Eclipse (Dreer's Eclipse).—A light green mammoth strain of excellent quality and attractive appearance. The stalks, not rarely, measure two inches in diameter, and even when twelve to fifteen inches long are perfectly tender and of a delicate light green color.
Hub.—Originated in New Hampshire several years ago, and was introduced by Joseph Breck & Sons, Boston, Mass. Although not generally catalogued, it is a distinct and valuable variety that has made a decided record for itself in the tests of the Kansas Experiment Station, where its yield, by weight, was greater than any other.
Mammoth.—This is a somewhat indefinite term, as almost any prominent seedsman and grower who has a particularly good and large strain of asparagus suffixes it to his own name. Among the best known of these are Vick's Mammoth, Maule's Mammoth, Prescott's Mammoth, etc.
Moore's Cross-bred.—This originated with J. B. Moore, who for twenty years was awarded the first prize on asparagus at the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, at one of which the weight of twelve stalks was 4 pounds 6-1/4 ounces. It retains the head close until the stalks are quite long, and is of uniform color, while for tenderness and eating quality it is excelled by none. It is particularly recommended for cultivation in New England.
Palmetto.—A variety of Southern origin, but suitable for the North also. At the South it is somewhat earlier than Conover's Colossal, but its great advantage is that it is almost destitute of, what dealers call, culls, nearly all shoots being of a uniform and large size. The bunch from which the engraving (Fig. 12) was made measured twenty-two inches in circumference, and contained forty-eight stalks of nine inches in length and remarkably uniform in size. It was taken on March 30th from a field of fifty acres, near Charleston, S. C. But the greatest point in its favor is its comparative security from the attacks of rust.
FIG. 12—BUNCH OF PALMETTO ASPARAGUS
Purple Top and Green Top.—These were the only distinct sorts in cultivation before the introduction of Conover's Colossal, but are now almost unknown to the trade and cultivators.
EUROPEAN VARIETIES
The named varieties of asparagus of European origin are very numerous, as almost every locality in which asparagus is cultivated extensively and successfully has given its name to a strain more or less distinct. Generally these varieties differ only in a single characteristic, and these differences, for the most part, are so little that they are lost when grown under different climatic and soil conditions. The best-informed authorities recognize three cultivated varieties, which have distinct commercial characteristics and whose seeds reproduce them in the seedlings.