228 KITCHEN GARDEN. 



plants cease to thrive. After thej are cut three times 

 they begin to stock, and then the oftener they are cut 

 the better. The cress is regarded as a very wholesome 

 raw salad vegetable, eaten at all seasons, but more 

 especially in winter and spring, when its warm and 

 cordial qualities make it particularly grateful. It is 

 frequently found growing spontaneously in streams, and 

 beds should be established wherever there is a good 

 spring of running water. A little spot of low ground, 

 capable of being irrigated, can be turned up with the 

 spade in the spring, and sown with seed, or set out with 

 plants. The water may be turned on and off at plea- 

 sure, and all the further culture con&ists in keeping 

 them clear of every kind of weed, and preventing their 

 being injured or destroyed by drought. 



It may be here observed that the wild Pepper Grass 

 (Lepidium virginicum), which grows spontaneously al- 

 most everywhere in the United States, is a species of 

 cress. See Farmers' and Planters'' Encyclopwdia, article 

 American Cress. 



Of Rhubarb {Bheum), several species and many va- 

 rieties are cultivated for the purpose of supplying mate- 

 rials for tarts, the foot-stalks of the leaves being well 

 adapted for that purpose, and coming into use at a most 

 convenient season, when apples are becoming scarce. 

 M. rhaponticum with red stalks, and palmatum with 

 green, were the species first employed, and these are 

 still occasionally used; but the sorts now preferred are 

 seminal varieties, mostly allied to R. hyhridum and R, 

 undulatum. The following are worthy of notice:^ 



Wilmot's. Buck's. 



Gigantic. Culbertson's. 



Elford. 



