Garden asparagus is reproduced from roots,[1149] the fibres of which are exceedingly numerous, and penetrate to a considerable depth. When it first puts forth its shoots, it is green; these in time lengthen out into stalks, which afterwards throw out streaked branches from the head: asparagus admits, also, of being grown from seed.
Cato[1150] has treated of no subject with greater care than this, the last Chapter of his work being devoted to it, from which we may conclude that it was quite new to him, and a subject which had only very recently occupied his attention. He recommends that the ground prepared for it should be a moist or dense soil, the seed being set at intervals of half a foot every way, to avoid treading upon the heads; the seed, he says, should be put two or three into each hole, these being made with the dibble as the line runs—for in his day, it should be remembered, asparagus was only grown from seed—this being done about the vernal equinox. It requires, he adds, to be abundantly manured, and to be kept well hoed, due care being taken not to pull up the young plants along with the weeds. The first year, he says, the plants must be protected from the severity of the winter with a covering of straw, care being taken to uncover them in the spring, and to hoe and stub up the ground about them. In the spring of the third year, the plants must be set fire to, and the earlier the period at which the fire is applied, the better they will thrive. Hence it is, that as reed-beds[1151] grow all the more rapidly after being fired, asparagus is found to be a crop remarkably well suited for growing with them. The same author recommends, however, that asparagus should not be hoed before the plants have made their appearance above-ground, for fear of disturbing the roots; and he says that in gathering the heads, they should be cut close to the root, and not broken off at the surface, a method which is sure to make them run to stalk and die. They should be cut, he says, until they are left to run to seed, and after the seed is ripe, in spring they must be fired, care being taken, as soon as they appear again, to hoe and manure them as before. After eight or nine years, he says, when the plants have become old, they must be renewed, after digging and manuring the ground, by replanting the roots at intervals of a foot, care being taken to employ sheep’s dung more particularly for the purpose, other kinds of manure being apt to produce weeds.
No method of cultivating this plant that has since been tried has been found more eligible than this, with the sole exception that the seed is now sown about the ides of February, by laying it in heaps in small trenches, after steeping it a considerable time in manure; the result of which is that the roots become matted, and form into spongy tufts, which are planted out at intervals of a foot after the autumnal equinox, the plants continuing to be productive so long as ten years even. There is no soil more favourable to the growth of asparagus, than that of the gardens of Ravenna.[1152]
We have already[1153] spoken of the corruda, by which term I mean the wild asparagus, by the Greeks called “orminos,” or “myacanthos,” as well as by other names. I find it stated, that if rams’ horns are pounded, and then buried in the ground, asparagus will come up.[1154]
CHAP. 43.—THISTLES.
It really might have been thought that I had now given an account of all the vegetable productions that are held in any degree of esteem, did there not still remain one plant, the cultivation of which is extremely profitable, and of which I am unable to speak without a certain degree of shame. For it is a well-known fact, that some small plots of land, planted with thistles,[1155] in the vicinity of Great Carthage and of Corduba more particularly, produce a yearly income of six thousand sesterces;[1156] this being the way in which we make the monstrous productions even of the earth subservient to our gluttonous appetites, and that, too, when the very four-footed brutes[1157] instinctively refuse to touch them.
Thistles are grown two different ways, from plants set in autumn, and from seed sown before the nones of March;[1158] in which latter case they are transplanted before the ides of November,[1159] or, where the site is a cold one, about the time that the west winds prevail. They are sometimes manured even, and if[1160] such is the will of heaven, grow all the better for it. They are preserved, too, in a mixture of honey and vinegar,[1161] with the addition of root of laser and cummin—so that a day may not pass without our having thistles at table.[1162]
CHAP. 44.—OTHER PLANTS THAT ARE SOWN IN THE GARDEN: OCIMUM; ROCKET; AND NASTURTIUM.
For the remaining plants a brief description will suffice. The best time for sowing ocimum,[1163] it is said, is at the festival of the Parilia;[1164] though some say that it may be done in autumn as well, and recommend, when it is sown in winter, to drench the seed thoroughly with vinegar. Rocket,[1165] too, and nasturtium[1166] may be grown with the greatest facility either in summer or winter. Rocket, more particularly, is able to stand the cold, and its properties are quite different from those of the lettuce, as it is a great provocative of lust. Hence it is that we are in the habit of mixing these two plants in our dishes, the excess of cold in the one being compensated by the equal degree of heat in the other. Nasturtium has received that name from[1167] the smarting sensation which its pungency causes to the nostrils, and hence it is that a certain notion of smartness has attached itself to the word, it having become quite a proverbial saying, that a sluggish man should eat nasturtium, to arouse him from his torpidity. In Arabia, it is said, this plant attains a size that is quite marvellous.