THE lADY'S-SJfOCK. 13o 



to its relationship with the watercress and other members 

 of the same family, and to the pungent flavour of the plant 

 when employed, as it sometimes is, in salads, the plant 

 having- formerly had a great reputation as an antiscorbutic. 

 The plant is still, in many parts of the Continent, largely 

 employed, and big bundles of it may be seen amongst the 

 other vegetables in the public markets. In olden time it 

 was considered a potent remedy in hysteria, epilepsy, and 

 many other diseases ; hence the name bestowed on it, 

 Ctii'ilamitie, a name derived from two Greek words signi- 

 fying the heart and to overpower. Its near ally, the 

 watercress, is, one need scarcely say, largely employed as 

 an article of diet, and authorities assure us that the chloride 

 of potassium and iodine it contains render it distinctly 

 valuable as a food substance. 



The lady's-smock is a perennial, and each year throws 

 up a stem some twelve to eighteen inches high. The 

 leaves that spring from the stem are pinnate in character, 

 having numerous lateral leaflets. The radical leaves have 

 the same general arrangement, but the leaflets are much 

 fewer in number and considerably broader, and the terminal 

 leaflet is much larger than any of the others. The radical 

 leaves do not, like the stem leaves, catch the eye at a 

 cursory glance, but must be sought amidst the grass, and 

 can only be well seen by pulling up the entire plant. The 

 flowers are large arid attractive, and composed of four petals, 

 arranged in a cross form a conspicuous feature in the 

 natural order to which the plant belongs which is hence 

 termed the crucifer or cross-bearing family. The blossoms 

 are at times met with of a pure white, though more 

 ordinarily of a pinkish purple, hence Shakespeare's line 



" Lady's-smock all silver white," 



