262 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



Uses. — The Water-cress is such a well-known plant that a 

 description of its uses is almost superfluous. At Paris, where the 

 market is always very abundantly supplied with it, it is used for 

 garnishing, in salads, and sometimes also boiled and minced, like 

 Spinach. Serving fresh good Cress in liberal quantities with 

 broiled meat or roast fowl should be more general in England. 



Improved Broad-leaved Water-cress. — For some years past 

 this variety has been a favourite in the Paris markets. The culture 

 and uses are exactly the same as those of the Common Water-cress, 

 but the leaves are much larger, more tender, and more pungent. 



AMERICAN, or BELLE-ISLE, CRESS 



Barbarea prcecox, R. Br. Erysimum prcecox, L. CrucifercE. 



French, Cresson de terre. German, Amerikanische Winterkresse. Flemish, Wilde kers. 



Danish, Winterkarse. 



Native of Europe. — Biennial. — The leaves of this plant have 

 some resemblance to those of the Water-cress, but the plant itself 



always grows on the dry 

 land. If sown in spring, it 

 forms during the summer 

 a tolerably full rosette of 

 compound leaves of a dark 

 and very glistening green 

 colour. In the following 

 spring the flower -stems 

 make their appearance, and 

 bear rather long spikes of 

 bright yellow flowers, which 

 are succeeded by slender 

 siliques or pods, containing 

 small, gray, rough-skinned 

 seeds, slightly flattened on 

 one side and round on the 

 other. Their germinating power lasts for three years. 



Culture. — This is extremely simple and easy. The seed 

 may be sown during the whole of the spring, summer, and 

 autumn, in any kind of garden soil, and successional sowings 

 are unnecessary, as there is no fear of the plants running to seed 

 too soon. On the other hand, if the plant is easily grown, its 

 produce is not so valuable as that of the Water-cress or the Common 

 Garden Cress, as the leaves are always hard, and their pungent 

 flavour is accompanied with a certain amount of acidity. The 

 radical leaves are used for seasoning and garnishing. 



The Winter Cress of English gardens is Barbarea vulgaris, 

 R. Br. {Erysiinum Barbarea, L.). Its culture and uses are precisely 

 the same as those of the American CresSc 



American, or Belle-Isle, Cress (i natural size). 



