1871.] LONDON WATER -CRESSES. 229 



leaves, and find, that the glands vary in number, but in no instance 

 have I observed less than two pairs ; sometimes there are three 

 pairs, and frequently the third pair, nearest the base of the leaf, is 

 only represented by a single gland on one side. It may be useful to 

 know, and perhaps Mr Donaldson will be kind enough to inform your 

 readers, if his plant differs from ours in this respect. From what I 

 have seen of this Passiflora at different times, it seems to me that the 

 only conditions needful- to induce a fruitful habit are — a pine-stove 

 temperature, top and bottom, abundance of light, a limited rooting- 

 space, careful impregnation of the flowers, and last, but not least, to 

 be careful, in pruning, to remove vrhat shoots are not wanted entirely, 

 and allow those that are retained to grow as much as they will during 

 the season without stopping. This, at all events, has been our practice, 

 with what results I have already stated. Many gardeners and others 

 saw our plant, and remarked the heavy crop, considering the age of the 

 plant — among others Mr Fowler of Harewood, who has long grown 

 and fruited it also ; and he w^as of opinion that it would still drop 

 part of its fruit. It did not, however ; and in consequence of the fruit 

 all ripening about the same time, w^e had more fruit than we could find 

 use for, and we disposed of a large number of them to a fruiterer. 

 The flowers were all impregnated with their own pollen : we had no 

 other Passiflora in bloom on the place. J. Simpson. 



liOlSTDOW WATER -CRESSES. 



" Water- Cresses ! Fine Water- Cresses ! Four bunches a penny ! Buy them and 

 try them !" Such is the call of many hundreds who perambulate the streets of 

 London nearly the whole year round, with a ba>ket on their head or arm ; and 

 some of the more provident and prosperous of the Water-Cress fraternity get the 

 length of pressing into their service a costermonger's barrow. The trade in such 

 a weedy-looking subject as Water-Cresses has swelled to such an extent that few 

 people in the country have any conception of it. As a salad they are regarded as 

 among the most healthy in cultivation, and, I believe, the only one allowed within 

 the precincts of an hospital. London has stich a capacious and all-devouring 

 appetite, that almost everything eatable finds a ready sale ; and almost every re- 

 sident of the mighty metropolis becomes the patron of the Water- Cress merchant. 

 Even the bargemen and coal-heavers, who seldom ever see a green field, have this 

 Cress to grace and relish at their tea-table. Water-Cress growing is quite an 

 extensive, and in many cases lucrative, business. And although much of the 

 London supply is conveyed from long distances in the country from their native 

 streams, they are artificially cultivated closer to London, and in some cases in 

 most unlooked-for places, including many an old brick-field, where the ground has 

 been dug out 6 and 8 feet, and, in some instances, 20 feet deep for brick-making. 

 One of these Cress-beds I will briefly describe, where the clay was used for bricks 

 to the depth of 16 feet. A spring of wholesome water was found well suited for 



K 



