WAT 



626 



WAT 



creased facility, so that you thus have 

 the greatest amount of the fostering 

 agencies of heat and moisture for the 

 growth of plants. When evening again 

 comes round, the surface moisture has 

 been dried up, and its colour again ren- 

 dered of a lighter shade ; there is con- 

 sequently little diminution of tempera- 



WATER CRESS. Nasturtium of- 

 ficinale. 



Varieties. — Small brown - leaved, 

 hardiest; Large brown-leaved, best for 

 deep water; Green-leaved, easiest cul- 

 tivated. — London Hart. Soc. Trans. 



Planting in Water. — On this we 

 have the following good directions in 



ture beyond surrounding objects, either | the Bon Jardinier. The depth of the 



from evaporation or radiation of heat. 

 ■ — Gard. Chron. 



trenches in which they are grown being 

 entirely dependent upon that of the 



Although an excess of water applied springs by which they are supplied 

 to the roots of plants is injurious to | with water, the former are so prepared 

 them, yet all of them are benefited by ' that, as nearly as possible, a regular 

 a due supply of that liquid, and the ' depth of three or four inches can be 

 su])ply has to be regulated by the kept up. These trenches are three 

 amount oftheir daily transpiration. The ' yards broad, and eighty-seven yards 

 gardener knows that this differs in every long, and whenever one is to be plant- 

 species, and during different seasons, ed, the bottom is made quite firm and 

 For instance, in a dry hot day, a sun- | slightly sloping, so that the water which 

 flower three feet and a half high trans- flows in at one end may run out at the 

 pired 1 lib. 4 oz., being seventeen times i other. If the bottom of the trench is 

 more than the human body; during a 1 not sufficiently moist, a small body of 

 Lot dry night, 3 oz.; during a dewy water is allowed to enter to soften it. 

 night there was no transpiration, and ! The cresses are then taken and divided 

 during a rainy night the plant absorbed into small sets or cuttings, with roots 

 3 oz. Therefore, the gardener finds it ' attached to them ; and these are thrown 

 best to apply water during dry weather | over the bottom of the trench at the 

 early in the morning, just before the 1 distance of three or four inches from 

 chief demand occurs, which is from six '■ each other. The cress soon attaches 

 A.M., till two in the afternoon; and i itself to the damp earth; in three or 

 during moist weather he refrains from four days the shoots straighten and be- 

 the application entirely. Then again gin to strike root. At the end of fivR 

 the gardener keeps his agaves and other ; or six days, a slight dressing of well 

 fleshy-leaved plants in a dry stove, for ; decomposed cow-dung is spread over 

 they transpire but sparingly in propor- | all the plants, and this is pressed down 

 tion to their mass, and require watering ' by means of a heavy board, to which a 

 but seldom, and then abundantly; for 1 long handle is obliquely fixed. The 

 they take up, as in their native silicious ! water is then raised to the depth of 

 habitats, a large supply, and retain it| two or three inches, and never higher, 

 pertinaciously in defiance of the long- ' Each trench is thus replanted annually, 

 protracted droughts to which they are ' and furnishes twelve crops during the 

 exposed. In the same species I have ' season. In the summer the cresses are 

 always found varieties transpire abun- ' gathered every fifteen or twenty days, 

 dantly and require a large supply of ! but less frequently during winter : care 

 water in proportion to the extent of is taken that at each gathering at least 

 their transpiring surface. Thus the ' a third part of the bed is left untouched, 

 broad-leaved fuchsias and pelargoniums so that neither the roots may be ex- 

 transpire from two to three times as hausted, nor the succeeding gathering 

 much as those varieties which have j delayed. After every cutting, a little 

 smaller and less abundant foliage. 1 decayed cow-dung, in the proportion 

 Excessive moisture induces that over | of two large barrowfuls to each trench, 

 succulency, which is ever attended by i is spread over the naked plants, and 

 weakness, unnatural growth, and early | this is beaten down by means of the 

 decay. Such plants more than any ; rammer above mentioned. After the 

 others are sufferers by sudden vicissi- ' water cresses have been thus treated 

 tudes in the hygrometric state of the for a twelvemonth, the manure forms a 

 atmosphere, and are still more fatally tolerably thick layer at the bottom o{ 

 ▼ isited, if exposed to low reductions of; the trench, and tends to raise its level. 



temperature." — Princ. of Gard. 



To restore it to its original level, all 



