178 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
pods, with the seeds in 2 rows, form a sure method of distin- 
guishing it. 
Common Water-Cress. 
French, Cresson Officinal, Cresson de Fontaine. 
] 5] 
German, Die Gebraiichliche Brunnenkresse, Wasserkresse, Quellenranke. 
This plant undoubtedly got its name Officinal from its wholesome properties. Its 
ancient reputation as an article of food, valuable both for its pleasant pungent taste and 
its antiscorbutic properties, is well founded. Recent writers on the subject of diet have 
shown that in partaking of fresh uncooked vegetable food in the shape of salads and 
fruit we are obtaining those salts of potash and other constituents so necessary to health 
which in the process of cooking are dissolyed away. Water-Cresses are found to contain 
chloride of potassium and sulphur in considerable quantities, and iodine occasionally. 
No better vehicle for the introduction of these important substances into the system 
can there be than fresh bright Water-Cresses; and our old friend Gerarde’s notion 
of their value presages all the modern discoveries as to their virtues. He says 
that the eating of Water-Cresses restores their accustomed bloom to the faded cheeks 
of sickly young ladies. He might have added that a walk to the running stream where 
they grow would enhance the effects of the remedy. So large is the consumption of 
Water-Cresses in London that they are cultivated by market gardeners to a great 
extent by means of artificial water supplies, but none are so delicious as those from 
natural streams. Our popular street cry has been rhymed by Swift thus -— 
“ Fine spring Water-Grass, 
Fit for lad or lass.” 
The use of this excellent salad plant was known at a very remote period. Among 
the Greeks it was highly esteemed, not only as an agreeable vegetable but as a valuable 
medicine; it was considered particularly useful in disorders of the brain, hence a common 
proverb among the Greeks was, “ Eat Cress to learn more wit.” Xenophon attributed 
still greater virtues to it, recommending the Persians to give it to their children as a 
means of adding to their strength and stature. In the time of Pliny it was still given 
with vinegar as a remedy for insanity and kindred affections, and was also highly 
esteemed as a salad. The old Northmen possibly used it as food, for the word kras 
was applied by them to the herb-flavoured porridge which often formed the meal of the 
hardy Vikings, as well as to the plant which was one of its ingredients. The name 
Cress has, according to writers, many origins. It is found in various forms in all 
Teutonic languages. Some have derived it from the cross-like form of the flower. 
Chaucer employs the Saxon form of the word kers to signify anything worthless :— 
“ Of paramours ne raught he not a ers.” 
From which, perhaps, is derived the phrase of not caring a cwrse for a thing. The 
Water-Cress is now seldom used otherwise than as a salad, excepting in France, where 
it is dressed like spinach, and the picked leaves are served with roasted fowl as Powlet 
aux cressons. Formerly the Water-Cress was in high repute for its medicinal qualities, 
and boiled with brooklime, scurvy-grass, and Seville oranges, formed the “ spring juices” 
so much esteemed by our grandmothers as a health-giving draught for children. It is 
probable that the fresh green leaves as an adjunct to the breakfast or tea-table are a 
far better antiscorbutic than any such compound, and it is greatly to be recommended 
as a common practice in all households of young people, that a portion of uncooked 
