CRESS, OR GARDEN CRESS 



259 



and merely notched here and there on the edges. The leaves 

 are oval in shape, about 2 in. long, and about i in. broad. They 

 have slender stalks and a somewhat irregular outline. 



Golden, or Australian, Garden Cress.— This might be taken 

 for a sub-variety of the Large-leaved Garden Cress, as the leaves 

 are similar in shape and only differ in their colour, which is a pale 

 yellowish green, and always so marked that it strikes even the most 

 unpractised eye at once. These two varieties differ so much in the 

 appearance of their leaves from the Common Garden Cress, that 

 any one seeing them growing side by side before flowering might 

 think they were plants of quite different species. 



4 



WATER-CRESS 



Nasturthnn officinale ^ R. Br. CrucifercB. 



French, Cresson de fontaine, C. de ruisseau, Sante du corps. Ger?nan, Brunnenkresse. 

 Flemish and Dutch, Waterkers. Danish, Brondkarsen. Italian, Nasturzio acquatico, 

 Crescione di fontana. Spanish, Berro de agua. Portuguese, Agroiao d'agua. 



Native of Europe. — Perennial. — An aquatic plant, with long 

 stems, which readily take root, and which even send out into 

 the water white rootlets 

 serving to supply the 

 plant with nutriment. 

 Leaves compound, with 

 rounded divisions, slightly 

 sinuated, and of a dark 

 green colour ; flowers 

 small, white, in terminal 

 spikes ; seeds usually few, 

 very fine, in slightly 

 curved siliques or pods. 

 Their germinating power 

 lasts for five years. 



Culture.— The plea- 

 sant and pungent flavour 

 of the Watercress, and 

 also its well - known 

 hygienic properties, have 



from time immemorial Water-cress (i natural size). 



caused it to be highly 



esteemed for table use. The preference which the plant exhibits 

 for moist positions and even running streams renders the cultiva- 

 tion of it rather difficult, so that most people are content to gather 

 it where it grows naturally in brooks, ditches, or springs. In the 

 neighbourhood of some large towns, however, it is cultivated 



