188 SALAD PLANTS. 



eight inches apart. Half an ounce of seed will be sufficient 

 for fifty feet of drill. 



Use. The leaves, while young, have a warm, pungent 

 taste, and are eaten as a salad, either separately, or mixed 

 with lettuce or other salad plants. The leaves should be 

 cut or plucked before the plant has run to flower, as they 

 then become acrid and unpalatable. The curled varieties 

 are also used for garnishing. 



Varieties : 



Broad-leaved ^ coarse variety, with broad, spatulate 

 leaves. It is sometimes grown for feeding 

 poultry, and is also used for soups ; but it is less desirable 

 as a salad than most of the other sorts. 



Common or This is the variety most generally cultivated. 

 Plain-leaved T , . * 



Cress. It has plain leaves, and consequently is not so 



desirable a sort for garnishing. As a salad 

 kind, it is tender and delicate, and considered equal, if not 

 superior, to the Curled varieties. 



Curled Cress. Leaves larger than those of the Common 



GARNISHING 



Plain variety, of a fine green color, and frilled 

 and curled on the borders in the manner of some kinds of 

 Parsley. It is used as a salad, and is also employed as a 

 garnish. 



It is very liable to degenerate by becoming gradually less 

 curled. To keep the variety pure, select only the finest 

 curled plants for seed. 



Golden Cress. This variety is of slower growth than the 

 Common Cress. The leaves are of a yellow- 

 ish-green, flat, oblong, scalloped on the borders, sometimes 

 entire, and of a much thinner texture than any of the varie- 

 ties of the Common Cress. It is very dwarf, and is conse- 

 quently short when cut as a salad herb for use. It has a 



