IO 



HA RD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G SSIP. 



most common in use. The Greeks thought that the 

 warm and stimulating qualities of these plants put 

 life and energy into persons with a sluggish tempera- 

 ment, and also brightened the understanding of those 

 who partook of them : this circumstance gave rise to 

 the Greek proverb, " Eat cress and learn more wit." 

 Xenophon recommended the Persians to feed their 

 children with cresses, which he said would make 

 them grow tall, and be of more active habits. Pliny 

 dwells much on the medicinal virtues of these plants, 

 and recommends them to be eaten with vinegar as a 

 remedy for those minds that were deranged. The 

 garden cress is said to have been introduced into this 

 country about the middle of the sixteenth century. 

 Gerard mentions having received the seed of the 

 curled cress, which is a variety, from his loving friend 

 John Robins, of Paris. Thomas Cogan, in his 

 "Haven of Health," tells us "that the often eating 

 of this herb in salettes doth give sharpnesse and 

 readinesse to wit." The native country of this plant 

 was unknown until Dr. Sibthorp discovered it in 

 Greece. 



No British plant is in such popular request for 

 salad as the Water-cress, Nasturtium officinale, the 

 young leaves of which are supposed, like those of the 

 Scurvy-grass {Cochlearia officinalis), to purify the 

 blood, and therefore largely partaken of in the 

 spring. Our old friend Gerard recommends young 

 ladies to eat them as a restorative to the natural 

 bloom of their faded cheeks. A decoction of its 

 juice with that of Scurvy-grass and Seville oranges 

 used to be given to children as a medicinal drink in 

 the spring in days gone by. In Europe the water- 

 cress appears to have been first cultivated at Erfurth, 

 about the middle of the sixteenth century, but it was 

 not until 180S that it became an object of cultivation 

 in England. About that period a Mr. Bradbery began 

 to grow them for the London markets in the pretty 

 valley called Springhead, Northfleet, Kent, with 

 great success. In 1820 he removed to West Hyde, 

 near Rickmansworth, where he had no less than five 

 acres under water-cress cultivation. It is now ex- 

 tensively grown in the northern and eastern suburbs of 

 the metropolis, and also at Cookham, Farringdon, and 

 other places on the Great Western Railway, which line 

 brings no less than a ton a week of this wholesome 

 breakfast salad to London. Many hundred bunches 

 are sold every morning in Covent Garden, but the 

 largest share goes to Farringdon Market. The en- 

 tire supply to the various Metropolitan markets 

 cannot be less than from three to four tons per week 

 (see Wynter's "Curiosities of Civilization"). The 

 sale of this plant forms an important though humble 

 branch of domestic commerce in our towns and 

 cities. " Fine fresh Water-cresses ! " is the first coster 

 cry heard in a morning in the streets of London. 



Water-cress contains chloride of potassium and 

 sulphur in considerable quantities, and iodine occa- 

 sionally. 



The botanical name of the garden-cress, Lepidium, 



is derived from lepis, a scale, from the form of the 



seed-pouches ; that of Nasturtium, from nasus, nose, 



tortus, torment, from the effects most of this genera 



have upon the muscles of the nose,— a name given to 



it by Pliny. In some counties these plants used to be 



called ' ' Nose-smart " for the same reason. The word 



" cress," perhaps, may be derived from cresco, being a 



quick grower. In the last edition of the " English 



Botany " we are told that the word "cress" is found in 



various forms in all Teutonic languages. Some have 



derived it from the cross form of the flowers. 



Chaucer employs the Saxon form of the word Kers, 



to signify anything worthless : — 



" Of paramours ne raught he not a Kers ; " 

 from which, perhaps, is derived the phrase of not 

 caring a curse for anything. 



THE ANNELID "DERO." 



By R. Garner, F.L.S., &c. 



'"pHE two little fresh- water Annelids, portions of 

 J. which are figured at a, b, c, are very dis- 

 tinct from their allies, the Naids. of which, however, 

 several species are often found with them ; Nais 

 proboscidea, for instance. Dero is the generic name 

 appropriated to the present annelids. Though hardy, 

 they seem to require a warm temperature, and those 

 here described inhabit the slimy mud of a pool, into 

 which hot water is constantly pouring from an engine. 

 A dark green Oscillatoria also grows in the same 

 mud, and thrives in a higher temperature than either 

 the annelid or the hand can endure. 



The peculiarity of Dero, and one which makes it a 

 pretty object for the microscopist, is the expanded 

 membrane or respiratory disk, situated at the posterior 

 part of the body, having projections or processes 

 upon it, and the whole strongly ciliated, thus pre- 

 senting some resemblance to the corona of a Bryozoon, 

 though the ciliated processes are fewer. This part, 

 the undoubted respiratory organ, it is the habit of the 

 little animal to protrude out of the mud in which it 

 lives, and when the disk is expanded, the processes 

 fairly extended, and the cilia in strong action, few 

 objects are more striking. There is a difference 

 between a and b and c, the former having a pair of 

 antenna-like processes, which are not retractile. 



Another interesting point, and one which from the 

 transparency of the animal and the bright-red colour 

 of the blood, is not difficult to investigate, is the 

 circulation. Of this, investigation has already been 

 made,* and all that we give here is solely what we 

 have ourselves noticed. An abdominal vein running 

 from the head, /, to the respiratory disk at the 

 opposite extremity, a, receives the blood from the 



* M. E. Perrier, " Comptes Rendus," 1870, an extract being 

 given in Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., fourth sec, vol. 6. 



