360 THE FLOKAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



Btems a shade paler than the leaves ; it shows no tint of brown or 

 bronze, is very reluctant to flower, and is peculiarly tender and 

 delicately flavoured. Were I to plant it in the brook it would, of 

 course, lose these distinctive characteristics, and pass into the 

 purple-stemmed form proper to the locality. One point gained, 

 then, is that by the pot system I am able to preserve a certain type 

 of plant that suits me, and that is a matter of no small importance. 

 A few other advantages attend the system. Fastidious people 

 who suspect sewage in a brook will not eat the cresses that grow 

 there. By growing them in pots you can employ any kind of water 

 you please, and the water used here is that supplied to the house 

 from the New River. There is a time in the summer when cresses 

 in open water are wiry, and pungent, and pushing into flower, and 

 unfit for the table. But you can have pot cresses then as tender as 

 at any other time ; for you can start a batch of cuttings to insure 

 a tender grovrth when established plants would be running up to 

 flower, and you can put the pots and pans in a cool and partially- 

 shaded place to moderate the growth. So, again, when the open 

 water is frozen, and cresses become scarce, you may have a good 

 supply from a pit or frame by preparing a suflticient number of pots 

 in time and keeping them in the fullest vigour possible by exposing 

 them to the free light and air until shelter from frost becomes 

 absolutely necessary. Thus the pot culture ensures a supply of 

 cresses all the year round, and if properly managed the quality will 

 be of the very best. 



We now come to the practical part of the business. A fair trial 

 has been made of many dilferent methods of cultivation, and I have 

 settled down to a routine that I will now describe. The favourite 

 pot is one that was made for me some ten years ago for specimen 

 fern-culture by Messrs. Adams, of Belle Isle. It measures fifteen 

 inches across and is nine inches deep. This is half filled with 

 lumps of chalk, old mortar, and broken bricks of the size of one's 

 fist, then a little moss is laid on, and finally a good body of rich soil 

 is heaped up, and made firm by pressure, so as to have a convex 

 shape. Very small cuttings of the cress are then dibbled in all over 

 the soil, about three inches apart, and the pot is then stood in a pan 

 of water, three or four inches depth of water being sufiicient. In 

 case such pots as mine are not available, common fifteen-inch seed 

 pans answer admirably. These should have a layer of broken chalk 

 or old mortar, and a good body of rich soil heaped up to a convex 

 surface, and when planted be placed in pans of water. In hot 

 weather it is desirable to put the newly -planted pots and pans in a 

 cool shady place for a few days, but as soon as growth commences 

 they should be removed into a place where they will be fully 

 exposed to the sunshine, for a first-class sample cannot be grown 

 in the shade. 



It may occur to you that the rough lumps of chalk and old 

 mortar may be dispensed with, but you will find, as I have done, 

 that they are really essential to first-class production. So, again, 

 it may be suggested that to plunge the pans to the rim, or even 

 deeper, will be for the advantage of the plant; but here again I 



