60 CRUCIFER^ 



of the Winter-cress, for the plant is Die JFinterkresse of the Germans, and 

 the Winterkers of the Dutch, while it is commonly called Finterkurs in Den- 

 mark. The leaves are, at the best, so nauseous, however, that when we taste 

 them, we are ready to invoke blessings on the man who introduced the lettuce 

 and the radish. In Sweden they are sometimes boiled as greens. Cows 

 will eat the plant, but it is refused by horses. Baxter remarks of this 

 Winter-cress, " A minute species of Tiimla, or Gall-gnat, sometimes renders 

 the flowers like a hop-blossom ; but this metamorphosis does not strictly par- 

 take of the nature of galls, as it originates, not from the egg, but from the 

 larva, which, in the operation of extracting the seed, in some way imparts a 

 morbid action to the juices, causing the flower to expand unnaturally." He 

 adds, that " a minute fungus, Uredo Candida, is parasitical on the under side 

 of the leaves, and on the stem of this plant, all the summer." 



2. Early Winter-cress {B. p-cecox). — Lower leaves lyre-shaped, or 

 pinnate ; upper ones pinnatifid ; segments linear, oblong, entire, obtuse, 

 scarcely thicker than the flower-stalk. Plant biennial. This species is more 

 slender than the last, and has narrower leaves. It is not uncommon in the 

 west of England. Several of the cresses have been introduced among seeds 

 into Australia; and Backhouse describes a perennial species, which has 

 become a very troublesome weed there. B. prcecox appears to be a cultivated 

 form of B. vulgaris. 



21. Cress {Nasturtium). 



* Floivers white. 



\. Common Water-cress (iV. officinale). — ^Leaves pinnate ; leaflets 

 roundish, or oblong, toothed and waved ; pods slender, about an inch long. 

 Plant perennial. The small white flowers of this plant, though blooming 

 from June to August, would scarcely be seen by any but a botanist. The 

 Water-cress is found in many of our ponds and rivers, such as the poet has 

 described — 



"The rivulet, 



Wanton and wild, through many a green ravine, 



Beneath the forest flow'd : sometimes it fell 



Among the moss, with hollow harmony, 



Dark and profound. Now, on the polish'd stones 



It danced, like childhood, laughing as it went. 



Then through the plain, in tranquil wanderings, crept, 



Reflecting every herb and drooping bud 



That overhung its quietness." 



Sweet little nooks abound in our country where crystal streams are lying, 

 and where — 



*' The cresses, which grow where no man may see them," 



are springing up in plenty. The streams, indeed, are not always lined with 

 verdure, especially in the neighbourhood of villages ; yet sometimes, as we 

 have looked even into these waters, gliding by the cresses, over some red tile 

 or pieces of blue earthenware, and sweeping down the emerald grasses in 

 their course, it has seemed as if the waters were flowing over a bright mosaic 

 work, and we have thought of the good moral lesson drawn by Ruskin from 

 the gutter of the city. "Even in the heart of the foul city it is not alto- 



