Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/31

 ASPASIA ASPHALT UM 19 of them are rare and of little importance, and none are natives of America. Of the wild spe- cies, the most widely spread are the A. aeutifo- lius and albus, the needle-leaved and the white, the former of which is common in France, Spain, Barbary, and the Levant ; the latter is found in the same countries, France excepted, and is remarkable for its white flexuous boughs and green caducous leaves ; the young shoots of both are eaten by the Arabs and Moors. The best known member of the genus is A. offici- nalu, the common or garden asparagus, es- teemed as a delicate culinary herb from the time of the ancient Greeks. It is thought to be native both on the shores of England and in rocky and sterile districts in Europe and Asia, and when it has attained its full develop- ment is an elegant plant, from 3 to 4 feet high, with numerous branches loaded with fine and delicate leaves, and covered with small, green- ish-yellow, bell-shaped, and almost solitary flowers. The young and tender shoots of the plant, cut when but a few inches from the ground, before ramification, are served for the table. It loves a dry, deep, and .powerfully manured soil, and -is raised from seeds either planted in seed beds in the spring and trans- planted the next year, or planted at first where they are to remain. During the first two years the young heads should not be cut; half of them may be cut in the third, and after that the full crop. The supply will begin to dimin- ish after 10 or 12 years. The beds for aspara- gus are usually a^out 4 feet broad, and should be manured and trenched at least 2 feet deep. The plants are in rows about a foot apart, and are thinned out till they stand about 6 inches from each other in the row, and in growing a cluster of heads branch from each root. The crop may be reaped as often as it appears, be- ing cut from a little below the surface of the ground; yet the plant degenerates by being cut late in the season. The bed should be annually, in the autumn, replenished with manure, dug in between the rows as deeply as possible with- out injuring the roots, and covered with pulve- rized manure, seaweed, or other litter during the winter, as a protection from the frost. Asparagus is easily forced by the use of hot- beds, but the process of transplanting always injures or destroys the roots; and if, instead of transplanting, the bed bo covered and the trenches filled with hot dung, which mode is sufficient to forward the crop one or two weeks, care must be taken to give the plants time to rest and recover in the later part of the season. ASPASI1, a Milesian woman who fixed her residence at Athens about the middle of the 5th century B. 0. By her great eloquence, political and literary ability, and personal fas- cination, she at once obtained a commanding position among the leaders of the state, and gained the affection of Pericles so far that he separated himself from his wife and made As- pasia his consort as well in private life as in political affairs. The fact that the laws of Athens conferred no rights upon foreign wom- en, and allowed no actually legitimate marriage with them, has given rise to the impression that Aspasia was a courtesan. The many ene- mies of Pericles, especially the satirists of the time, also conveyed this idea by their attacks, but it seems to have been without foundation ; she was held in universal esteem, and her union with Pericles was as close as the Athenian law allowed, and continued through his life. The enemies of Pericles attributed to her influence the outbreak of the war with Samos and of the Peloponnesian war; but the best historians deny this. She is also said with obvious exag- geration to have instructed Pericles in oratory ; but it is certain that she assisted him greatly in the government, and that her own eloquence was remarkable. When the Athenians named Pericles the Olympian Zeus, Aspasia was called Hera (Juno). Her house was the resort of all the leading statesmen and philosophers of Athens ; and in many of their works her great abilities are celebrated. After the death of Pericles (429) she attached herself to a cattle dealer named Lysicles, whom she instructed in oratory and by her influence raised in position. Her son by Pericles took his father's name, being legitimated by a popular decree, and became a general of high rank. He was put to death with five others in consequence of the unsuc- cessful result of the battle of Arginusae (406). ASI'K.V. See POPLAR. ASPEKN AND ESSLING, two villages lying about a league apart, on the N. side of the Danube, a short distance below Vienna, which were the principal strategic points in a despe- rate battle to which they have given a name, fought May 21 and 22, 1809, between Na- poleon's army and the Anstrians under the archduke Charles. The Austrians attacked while the two bodies of the French force were separated by the river, inflicting a severe de- feat, and finally compelling Napoleon to re- treat to the island of Lobau. Mass6na, who secured the retreat by the defence of Essling, received from it his title of duke of Essling. The Austrian loss was 4,000 killed and 16,000 wounded; Napoleon's loss 8,000 killed and 30,000 wounded. Marshal Lannes was among the mortally wounded. The success of the Austrians was more than counterbalanced soon after by their defeat at Wagram (July 5, 6). ASPli ALTITKS LAWS. See DEAD SKA. ASPHALTUM, or Asphalt (Gr. do^aArof), a mix- ture of different hydrocarbons, some of which contain oxygen, by the majority of chemists and geologists supposed to be of vegetable origin, while others derive it from the remains of ani- mals. It is also called bitumen, mineral pitch, and Jews' pitch (from Lacus Asphaltites). (See BITUMEN.) It is more bituminous than the coals, and when pure is of the consistence of resin ; but the consistence varies with the tempera- ture and with the amount of liquid bitumen or petroleum which may be mixed with it, hold-
 * ing the more solid asphaltura in solution. It