WATER-CRESS. 135 



borne on stems that spring in bunches from one point, like 

 the ribs of an umbrella, while its leaves are much longer, 

 more acutely pointed, and of a paler green than those of 

 the water-cress ; the leaf-stalks also at their bases sheathe 

 the stem, and those of the water-cress do not. The fool's 

 cress is so called because no one but a very foolish person 

 would really mistake it for the true water-cress. The 

 resemblance between the two species is after all very 

 slight, and the points of difference we have set down are 

 amply sufficient to prevent any possibility of mistake. 



The water-cress grows most luxuriantly in clear and 

 gently-moving streams having a gravelly bottom, and 

 the plants have then a far finer development and a richer 

 flavour than those that have sprung up either on mud or 

 in almost or quite stationary water; but we have even 

 heard of its being grown very successfully as a pot-plant 

 in the greenhouse, the great necessity being an ample supply 

 of water, or the plants grow tough and burning to the 

 taste. Water-cress must be familiar to all as an agree- 

 able and wholesome salad, and its culture for the table 

 is very extensively practised in many parts of England. 

 Large quantities are brought in daily for a considerable 

 part of the year to the London markets and other large 

 centres of population, travelling in many cases forty or 

 fifty miles to their destination. One Nicholas Mesner has 

 the credit of being the first man to cultivate it. He was 

 a native of Erfurt, and lived there in the middle of the 

 sixteenth century ; but though after this beginning the 

 water-cress was freely grown in Holland and Germany, 

 it was more than a hundred years afterwards that an 

 Englishman, named Bradbury, introduced its culture into 

 England. 



