54 



DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



when taken in large mouthfuls. Officinalis, Latin, signifies that the plant 

 helongs to commerce, or the shops. Wafer Cress, the common name, comes 

 from the Latin cresco, grow, and " water " allndes to its habit of growing in the 

 water. 



History. — The home of the Nasturtium is Europe and northern Asia. 

 Where or when it was first introduced into the catalogue of table vegeta- 

 bles is not known. It was noticed by Dioscorides and Pliny, and therefore 



must have been in use 

 in Italy before the Chris- 

 tian era. It has been 

 seen near the mouth of 

 the Columbia River, in 

 North America. It was 

 brought to eastern North 

 America probably by 

 colonists from Holland, 

 where it is grown to a 

 considerable extent. 



Use. — It is eaten as 

 a salad, and used to 

 garnish dishes of meats 

 and of fish. It is served 

 always without cooking, 

 eaten with salt, or a vin- 

 egar dressing, and is a 

 popular salad-plant with 

 oysters and game. 



Note. — The nasturtium of the garden is Trop^olum, which belongs to the 

 geranium family, and is an immigrant from Peru. It has showy yellow 

 flowers, and is cultivated both for ornament and its fruit, which is curiously 

 curved and ribbed The fruit is plucked before it is mature, and pickled. 

 It has a pungency similar to the Nasturtium, hence its common name. 



Nasturtium officinale (Water Cress). 



Order V. CAPPARIDACE^. 



Sepals 4—8, free or sometimes cohering. Petals hypogynous or peri- 

 gynous, 4-8, sometimes wanting. Stamens 6 or many, hypogynous 

 or perigynous. Ovaries generally stipulate, 1-celled, or spuriously 2-8 

 celled, with parietal placentae, ovules curved. Flowers usually perfect. 

 Herbs, shrubs, or small trees. Leaves simple, or digitate and spiny. 

 The Capparis is a small shrub. Number of genera, 23. 



CAPPARIS, L. Calyx divided into 4 spreading, ovate sepals. 

 Petals 4, alternate with the sepals, wedge-strap shape, longer than 

 the sepals, spreading or recurved. Stamens numerous, inserted on 

 a subconical receptacle, free, anthers attached lengthwise along their 

 backs to the filaments, and the cells turned out. Pistil one, longer 

 than the stamens. Shrub. 



1. C. spinosa, L. (Caper.) Stem from 2 to 3 feet long, straggling or 

 prostrate, very mucli branched, bark white. Leaves ovate or orbicular, thick. 



