374 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Create a demand and you raise a supply, 

 is a proverb exemplified in the manner by 

 which the industrious mechanics of the im- 

 mense metropolis of England are furnished 

 with this purifying plant; for scarcely is there 

 a street so obscure, or a court so humble, 

 where the first chaunt of a March morning is 

 not heard to announce, " Fine spring water- 

 cresses." 



These are brought from distant counties, 

 and often sold by the sack ; they are re-sold 

 in baskets, then in bunches, which are again 

 divided to accommodate those who have only 

 the lowest copper-coin to offer in exchange. 



We have omitted entering generally into a 

 botanical description of familiar plants, as 

 being useless to the learned botanist, and un- 

 intelligible to general readers; but as the 

 gatherers of this herb often send to market, 

 through ignorance, or some worse motive, 

 the creeping water-parsnip, which is of a per- 

 nicious quality, it may not be deemed use- 

 less to describe the general appearance of 

 the water-cress, and distinguish it from the 

 plant that is often substituted in its place. 

 The leaves of both plants are winged like 

 those of the rose, or the ash ; but the water- 



