HERBS USED IN THE PRESENT TIME 21 



Valley lilies, whiter still 

 Than Leda's love and cresses from the rill. 



Kndymion. 



Cresses that grow where no man may them see. 

 Ibid. 



I linger round my shingly bars, 

 I loiter round my cresses. 



The Brook. — Tennyson. 



Cresses have great powers of fascination for the poets, 

 and " the cress of the Herbalist is a noun of multitude," 

 says Dr Fernie. Of these now cultivated, St Barbara's 

 Cress {Barbarea vulgaris) has the most picturesque name, 

 and is the least known. It was once grown for a winter 

 salad, but American Cress {Erysimum proscox) is more 

 recommended for winter and early spring. Indian 

 Cress (Tropceolum majus), usually known as nasturtium, 

 is seldom counted a herb, although it is included 

 in some old gardening lists, for the sake of the 

 pickle into which its unripe fruits were made. Aber- 

 crombie adds that the flowers and young leaves are 

 used in salads, but this must be most rare in 

 England ; though, when once in Brittany, I remember 

 that the bonne used to ornament the salad on Sundays 

 with an artistic decoration of scarlet and striped 

 nasturtium flowers. Garden Cress (Lepidium sativum), 

 the tiny kind, associated in one's mind since nursery 

 days with "mustard," used to be known as Passerage, 

 as it was believed to drive away madness. Dr Fernie 

 continues, that the Greeks loved cress, and had a 

 proverb, " Eat Cresses and get wit." They were 

 much prized by our poor people, when pepper was a 

 luxury. "The Dutchmen^ and others used to eate 

 Cresses familiarly with their butter and breade, as also 

 stewed or boyled, either alone or with other herbs, where- 

 of they make a Hotch-Potch. We doe eate it mixed 



^ Parkinson. 



