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Salad Crops 



complex situation in nomenclature in any of the common gar- 

 den vegetables. It is well to state the case briefly in outline, 

 that the student may comprehend the nature of these tangles. 

 The question is involved with the botany of the plant and also 

 with the application of current rules of nomenclature. The 

 primary problem is whether the water-cress should be asso- 

 ciated with other plants in a more or less composite genus, 

 or whether it should be separated wholly or largely by itself. 

 In some respects it is unlike the plants with which it has been 

 associated, by Linnaeus himself in Sisymbrium and by subse- 

 quent authors in Nasturtium, Radicula and Roripa. If it is 

 separated, the question of the generic name to be adopted is 

 not simple. In the necessary dismemberment of the Liun.Tan 

 genus Sisymbrium, it would seem that the water-cress should 

 go into another genus inasmuch as it apparently does not 

 typify the genus Sisymbrium as Linnreus intended it. The 

 plant happens to be the first species described by Linnseus 

 under Sisymbrium, however, and for this reason certain 

 authors hold it in that genus as Linnaeus has it, /S. Xastur- 

 tium-aquaticum. In this disposition, Sisymbrium may be re- 

 garded as a monotypic genus, the water-cress being the only 

 species. This arbitrary resolution of the case is not commonly 

 followed. If another genus is desired for it, recourse may be 

 had to Cardaminum of Moeuch, 1794, or to Baeumerta, Giertner, 

 Meyer & Scherbius, 1800, both names being proposed exclu- 

 sively for the w^ater-cress. Radicula of Hill, 1756, Roripa of 

 Scopoli, 1730, and Nasturtium of Robert Brown, 1812, are pro- 

 posed for multiple segregates from Sisymbrium and in them the 

 water-cress has found lodgement. The plant is commonly 

 known in the trade as Nasturtium officinale, but this name 

 cannot hold under any interpretation, as in present practice 

 the Linnsean specific name, Nasturtium-aqiiaticum, must be 

 used with the generic name. The report of the International 

 Botanical Congress of Brussels, 1910, recommends the retention 

 of Nasturtium for the water-cress, rather than the older 

 generic names Cardaminum and Baeumerta, on the assump- 

 tion that the changes would be fewer or at least that the 



