136 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



A water-cress bed should be about four or five feet 

 wide, and have a good sandy or gravelly bottom : in 

 this the young- plants or cuttings are planted in rows 

 about a foot apart, so as to allow free passage of water. 

 The depth of water need not be more than three or four 

 inches. The water-cress bears a great deal of gathering 

 without injury to the plants. 



The plant is in France the Cresson, and in Germany 

 the Brunuenkresse. The generic name is derived from the 

 words nasus tortus, a convulsed nose, on account of the 

 pungency of most of the species. The water-cress contains 

 a considerable amount of sulphur and iodine, and though 

 we now value it more especially as a pleasant relish, it is 

 doubtlessly valuable medicinally from its stimulative effects 

 on the digestive organs and its an ti- scorbutic virtues to 

 persons of debilitated constitutions. A decoction of it 

 formed at one time a leading ingredient in the "spring 

 tea " our forefathers, or perhaps more especially our fore- 

 mothers, seem to have had such faith in. 





