CULPEPER'S COMPLETE HERBAL

ASPARAGUS, SPARAGUS, OR SPERAGE

Description. It riseth up at first with divers white and green scaly heads, very brittle and easy to break while they are young, which afterwards rise up in very long and slender green stalks, of the bigness of an ordinary riding wand, at the bottom of most, or bigger or lesser, as the roots are of growth; on which are set divers branches of green leaves shorter and smaller than fennel to the top; at the joints whereof come forth small yellowish flowers, which turn into round berries, green at first, and of an excellent red colour when they are ripe, shewing like bead or coral, wherein are contained exceeding hard black seeds, the roots are dispersed from a spongeous head into many long thick, and round strings, wherein is sucked much nourishment out of the ground, and increaseth plentifully thereby.