86 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



European origin. The date of its cultivation is probably 

 very ancient, earlier than the Aiyan invasions, but no- 

 doubt the wild plant was gathered before it was cultivated. 



Garden-Cress — Lepidiuni sativmn, Linnseus. 



This little Crucifer, now used as a salad, was valued 

 in ancient times for certain properties of the seeds. Some 

 authors believe that it answers to a certain cardamon of 

 Dioscorides ; while others apply that name to Erucaria 

 aleppica} In the absence of sufficient description, as the 

 modern common name is cardamon^ the fii'st of these 

 two suppositions is probably correct. 



The cultivation of the species must date from ancient 

 times and be widely diffused, for very different names 

 exist : resckad in Arab, turehteziik ^ in Persian, dieges ^ in 

 Albanian, a language derived from the Pelasgic ; without 

 mentioning names drawn from the similarity of taste 

 with that of the water-cress {Nasturtium officinale). 

 There are very distinct names in Hindustani and 

 Bengali, but none are known in Sanskrit.^ 



At the present day the plant is cultivated in Europe^ 

 in the north of Africa, in Eastern Asia, India, and else- 

 where, but its origin is somewhat obscure. I possess 

 several specimens gathered in India, where Sir Joseph 

 Hooker ^ does not consider the species indigenous. 

 Kotschy brought it back from Karrak, or Karek Island, 

 in the Persian Gulf The label does not say that it was 

 a cultivated plant. Boissier "^ mentions it without com- 

 ment, and he afterwards speaks of specimens from Ispahan 

 and Egypt gathered in cultivated ground. Olivier is 

 quoted as having found the cress in Persia, but it is not 

 said whether it was growing wild.^ It has been asserted 

 that Sibthorp found it in Cyprus, but reference to his 

 work shows it was in the fields.^ Poech does not mention 



^ See Fraas, Syn. Fl. Class., pp. 120, 124 ; Lenz, Bot der Alien, p. 617. 

 - Sibthorp, Prodr. Fl. Groic., ii. p. 6 ; Heldreich, Nutzpfi. GriecheriL, 

 p. 17. 



2 Ainslie, Mat. Med. Ind., i. p. 95. •* Heldreicli, Nutz. Gr. 



^ Piddington, Index; Ainslie, Mat. Med. Ind., i. -p. 95. 



'^ Hooker, FL Brit. Ind., \. p. 160. " Boissier, Fl. Orient., vol. i. 



8 De Candolle, Sy.^t., ii. p. 533. 



^ Sibthorp and Smith, Prodr. Fl. Grcrco:, ii. p. 6. 



