358 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



no value, and my purple cress would, no doubt, soon become a brown 

 cress if transported to Springhead. It follows, however, that a 

 general and useful deduction may be arrived at from the facta. It 

 is evident that the special character of a watercress is due to the 

 special circumstances of its production. The soil, the water, and 

 the climate influence the growth, and probably the quality of the 



water is tbe most important matter of all. The finest cresses grow 

 in the purest water, on a chalk bottom. There was, and probably 

 is, a charming brook of ice-cold water flowing rapidly through the 

 chalk in the quarries at Grays in Essex. From that brook I have 

 taken the finest growth of cresses it has ever been my lot to behold. 

 The samples obtained from loamy soils, near London, have never 

 equalled in quality such as I have had from the chalk ; aad it ia 



