662 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part HI. 



sionally in dry hot weather. At the approach of winter, shelter the plants, by laying a few light twigs 

 among them so as not to interfere with their growth ; and upon these, a covering of fern, reeds, or dry 

 litter. The plants being cut, or the outside leaves stripped off, shoot again for another gathering." 



4049. To save seed. " Let a few choice plants, raised in spring, run j and they will ripen seed before 

 the decline of summer." {Abercrombie.) 



SuBSECT. 11. winter Cress. — Barbm-ea vidgm^, H. K. {Eng. JBot. 443.); Erysi- 

 mum Barbarea, L. and Smith. Tetrad. Siliq. L. and Cruciferte, J. Barbare, Fr. ; 



Winter Kresse, Ger. ; and Erba di Santa Barbarea, Ital. 



4050. The winter cress is a well-known perennial plant, common in moist shady 

 situations. The lower leaves are lyre-shaped, and the upper obovate and indented. The 

 flower-stalk rises about a foot high, and produces yellow flowers from April to August. 

 The whole plant is bitter and somewhat aromatic. Neill observes, " Some stUl con- 

 sider the American cress of gardeners as a variety of this ; but after cultivating both 

 for several years, we have found those to be right who regard them as distinct." A 

 double variety of Barbarea is well known in the flovrer-border as the yellow rocket of gar- 

 deners. 



4051. Use and culture. The same as the American cress. 



SuBSECT. 12. Water-Cress. — Nasturtium officinale, H. K. {Eng. Bot. t. 855.); Sisym- 

 brium Nasturtium, L. Tetrad. Siliq. L. and Cruciferce, J. Cresson de Fontaine, Fr. ; 

 Briinnenkresse, Ger. ; and Cressione di Sorgenti, Ital. 



4052. Water-cress is a creeping amphibious perennial, growing in wet ditches and 

 slow running streams. The stems are spreading, declining or floating, if in water. Tlie 

 leaves are alternate, pinnate, and somewhat lyre-shaped. Tlie flowers are white in a 

 corymb, soon lengthened out into a spike in June and July. The plant, when growing 

 in a rapid current, has its leaves lengthened ; and in this state, Martyn remai'ks, is some- 

 times mistaken for the water-parsnep {Sium nodiflorum, L.), which commonly grows with 

 it, and is deleterious. 



4053. The cultivation of the watcr-cress is said to have been first attempted in 1808, by Bradbury, at 

 North fleet-Spring- Head, near Gravesend. This cultivator now grows five acres at Vv'est Hyde, near 

 Rickmansworth : he sends the cress in hampers, each containing eight dozen hunches, to the London 

 markets every day throughout the year, excepting Sundays, and in consequence of this and other supphes 

 from artificial sources, the wholesale price of the article is reduced one half. There are now several culti- 

 vators of water-cress at Hackney, Bayswater, Uxbridge, and other places. Water-cresses are also culti- 

 vated near Paris. {Neill, in Hart. ZbM?-, 4S0.) 



4054. Use. It forms an excellent spring salad either alone or wdth brook -lime or 

 scurvy-grass. It is a popular favorite in spring in most places ; and is eaten fasting, 

 or with bread and butter, by those who have faith in its antiscorbutic virtues. The juice 

 is decocted with that of scurvy-grass and Seville oranges, and fonns the popular remedy 

 called spring juices. 



4055. Varieties. Bradbury considers that there are three, the green-leaved, the small brown-leaved, and 

 the large brown-leaved. The green-leaved is the easiest cultivated, the small brown-leaved the hardiest, 

 and the large brown the best for cultivation in deep water, and that preferred by this cultivator. 



4056. Culture. The most suitable description of water is a clear stream, and not more than an inch and 

 half deep, running over sand or gravel ; the least favorable, deep still water on a muddy bottom. It is highly 

 advantageous ta make the plantations in newly risen spring-water, as the plants not only thrive better in 

 it, but in consequence of its being rarely frozen, they generally continue in vegetation, and in a good state 

 for gatheinng through the whole winter season. The plants are^disposed in rows parallel with the course 

 of the stream. In shallow water the distance between the rows is not more than eighteen inches, but in 

 deep water it is as much as from five to seven feet. When the plants begin to grow in water one inch 

 and a half deep, they soon check the current so as to raise the water to the height of three inches about 

 the plants, which is considered the most favorable circumstance in which they can be placed. Where the 

 plants are not in rows, the water is impeded in its course, and the plants are choaked up with weeds and 

 the different matters which float down the stream ; and when the cress is grown in deep water, the roots 

 are easily drawn out of the soil in gathering. The cress will not grow freely in a muddy bottom, nor will 

 it taste well when there is mud about the roots j which should be carefully removed, and replaced by 

 gravel or chalk. It is absolutely necessary to have a constant current, as where there is any obstruction'to 

 the stream or flow of water, the plants cease to thrive. After the plants have been cut about three times, 

 they begin to stock, and then the oftener they are cut the better ; in summer it is necessary to keep them 

 very closely cut ; and in water of a proper depth, and with a good soil, each bed supplies a gathering 

 once a-week. In winter the water should be i-ather deeper than in summer (four or five inches) ; to 

 obtain this, the plants are left with more head, that the water may thus be impeded. 



4057. Beplanting. The most expensive part of tlie cultivation is the necessity of cleaning out and re- 

 planting the beds twice a-year ; as the rnud quickly collects about the roots, and the duck-weed and other 

 plants become intei-mixed with, and choak up the cress ; it is almost impossible to pick it in a fit state for 

 market after the plantation has been made five or six months. The mode of replanting is ta remove all 

 the roots of plants, beginning at the stream head, and then clear the bed of the stream from mud and rub- 

 bish, which, however, it should be remarked, make excellent garden manure. From the crop of plants 

 thus taken out, the youngest, and those with most roots, are selected ; these are placed on the gravel in 

 rows at the requisite distance, with a stone on each plant, to keep it in its place. The times of renewing 

 the beds are in May and June, and from September to November. The planting is done in succession, so 

 that the crops may come regularly into cutting. Those planted in May are fit to cut in August, and those 

 planted in November are ready to gather in the spring. 



4058. Culture in tvater-beds. Some market-gardeners who can command a small stream of water, grow 

 the water-cress in beds sunk about a foot in a retentive soil, with a very gentle slope from one end to the 

 other. Along the bottom of this bed, which may be of any convenient breadth and length, chalk or gravel 

 is deposited, and the plants are inserted about' six inches' distance every way. Then, according to the 

 slope and length of the bed, dams are made six inches high across it, at intervals ; so that when these dams 

 are full, the w-iiter may rise net Isis tiian three inches on all the plants included in each. The water being 



