IMPROVEMENT OF CULINARY VEGETABLES. 
213 
it be the Nasturtium officinale, English water-cress, the writer 
is uncertain, as the plants were only very small seedlings when seen. 
The plants are cultivated in the following manner:—a trench of any 
length and about four feet wide is made in the ground about two feet 
deep. Into this water and the finest of the earth is thrown and 
mixed together forming thin puddle, till it is nearly as high as the 
edges of the trench. Over the whole length and width of the trench a 
shed or hovel is raised, and thickly thatched with cocoa-tree leaves, 
but open on the side and ends. The hovel finished, young plants are 
stuck in pretty thickly all over the surface of the puddle, and as much 
water let on as just allows the leaves to float. As this is quickly 
exhaled away, more is from time to time added Ic k°en the surface 
always moist. In this shaded situation the plants grow quickly, 
and soon come into use as a most acceptable salad herb in that warm 
climate. It is only gentlemen of fortune, however, who can treat 
themselves with such a luxury. 
The anti-scorbutic powers of the water-cress constitute its principal 
value as a condiment to food, and as the plant grows plentifully in 
a deep dell under a natural cascade in the Island of St. Helena, the 
crews of ships touching at that island are sent on shore, for the purpose 
of having a feast of this pleasant medicinal plant. 
It but seldom happens that it is necessary to cultivate water cresses 
for private use ; because wherever there is a stream of water, there the 
plant is spontaneously found, and where there is no stream they cannot 
be introduced. Stagnant pools are unsuitable, for though the plant 
will grow, they are neither so clean nor so palatable. For the supply 
of cities, or large towns, however, wherever a branch of a river can be 
appropriated to the purpose, or even where a constantly wet part of 
a meadow could be formed into a shallow channel for the growth 
of water cresses, the space so occupied would be, without doubt, as 
profitable as any other portion of the land. 
ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF IMPROVING CULINARY VEGETABLES. 
That the bulk, form, colour, and qualities of the greater part of our 
kitchen garden vegetables have been progressively advanced, from a 
diminutive and almost worthless wild state, to what we now find them, 
is sufficiently manifest. The wild cabbage, carrot, parsnep, and potato 
are all plants of little or no value; but since their domestication, by 
continued cultivation, and the application of practical skill acquired by 
