106 THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 



COSTMARY or Alecost (Chrysanthemum Balsamita 

 tanacetoides) is a little-grown herb, a hardy perennial, 

 its leaves used in salads. It is propagated by dividing 

 the roots. 



Soil. Preferably light, well drained and sunny. 



Distances. Two by two feet. 



Depth. As before. 



Set out root-divisions in spring or autumn. Re-set 

 every three or four years. 



Protect lightly in the North. 



CRESSES are best reduced to three classes. ("In- 

 dian Cress" is Tropceolum or Nasturtium; see under 

 Nasturtium. ) 



(1) Cress, Garden Cress, Common Cress, or Pepper 

 Cress (Lepidium sativum), is a salad and garnishing 

 plant, very popular in Europe and especially in the 

 neighborhood of London, where with mustard some 

 market-gardeners use as much as 500 bushels of seed 

 in a season. It should be better known in America, 

 being one of the freshest and crispest of salad-plants, 

 of very simple cultivation. Its taste is slightly peppery. 

 A valuable characteristic of the plant is its rapid 

 growth, yielding its crop in from three to four weeks; 

 but as it runs quickly to seed, successional sowings a 

 week or more apart are advisable. The plant and seed 

 are hardy. When the seed-stalk has formed, only the 

 young leaves are palatable. The leaves are used as 



