56 



THE VEGETABLE 6ARDEN 



plant is larger and stouter than the ordinary Italian Corn-salad, 

 and more suitable for southern than for northern climates. 



Varieties of Corn- 

 salad with variegated 

 leaves have often been 

 highly spoken of, but 

 none of them have ever 

 appeared to us to equal 

 the good varieties of 

 the green-leaved kinds. 

 Variegation, as a rule, 

 does not add to the value 

 of a table vegetable, and 

 it is almost always a sign 

 of weakness of growth. 

 Of these variegated kinds, 

 one has leaves marbled 

 with white, and another 

 has the heart and the 

 base of the central leaves 

 of a bright yellow colour. 

 These variegations, be- 

 coming more intense in 

 hue after the first touch 

 of frosty weather, have rather a pretty effect 



The Spoon-leaved Corn-salad, now nearly superseded by the 

 Cabbaging Corn- salad, was distinguished mostly by its leaves 

 being hollowed in the shape of a spoon or hood. 



Spoon-leaved Corn-salad. 



CRESS, or GARDEN CRESS 

 Lepidium sativum, L. Cruciferce. 



French, Cresson alenois. German, Garten-Kresse. Flemish, Hofkers. Dtttch, Tuinkers. 

 Danish, Havekarse. Italian, Agretto. Spanish, Mastuerzo. Portuguese, Mastri^o. 



Native of Persia. An annual plant of very rapid growth. The 

 pungent flavour of its leaves has caused it to be used as a con- 

 diment from time immemorial, and its culture is so easy that it 

 finds a place in the humblest kitchen-garden. The radical leaves 

 are very much divided and very numerous, forming a straggling 

 rosette, from the centre of which soon rises a smooth branching 

 stem furnished with a few almost linear leaves. The flowers are 

 white, small, and four-petalled, and are succeeded by roundish pods, 

 which are very much flattened and slightly concave. The seeds 

 are comparatively large, furrowed, oblong, and of a brick-red colour ; 



