CRESS, a name given to many plants, of which the foliage has a pungent, mustard like taste, and is used as a salad. It is sometimes more strictly confined to the genus lepidium, a genus of the natural order cruciferm, having small white flowers, and oblong or rounded laterally compressed pouches (silicules), with the cells one-seeded, and the valves keeled or winged on the back. The COMMON C., or GARDEN C. (L. sativum), is an annual, a native of the east, frequently cultivated in our gardens, and used in a young state as a salad; being procured in a few weeks from the time of sowing. and, by the aid of a little artificial heat, even in winter. There is an esteemed variety with curled leaves. Like most of the other plants of similar pungent taste, particularly those of the order cruciferce, the garden C. is powerfully anti-scorbutic. Still more pungent, and almost like pepper in tast, is its congener, PEFPERWORT, dittander, or poor man's pepper (L. latifohum), found in wet places near the sea in some parts of Britain, and occasionally used as a condiment by the poorer classes. It was once in high repute as a remedy for various diseases. VIRGINIAN C.[(L. Virginicum) resembles the garden C. in its properties, and is eaten as a salad, and used as a diaphoretic medicine in North America and the West Indies. L. piscidium, a native of the South Sea islands, is there used to stupefy fish; it is also cue of the plants used by sailors for prevention or cure of scurvy. The name WINTER C. is given to species of the genus Barbarea, also cruciferous biennial or perennial plants, with racemes of yellow flowers, quadrangular pods, and lyrate or pinnate leaves. The common winter C. (B. vulgaris), formerly known as herb St. Barbara, is plentiful in moist pastures and hedge-banks in Britain, and throughout Europe and North America. It is occasionally cultivated as a winter salad; in Sweden it is used as a boiled vegetable. Its pungency is combined with some degree of bitterness. A double variety is common in flower borders, and bears the name of YELLOW ROCKET. Very similar to this, and also occa sionally cultivated, is the early winter C., or AMERICAN C. (Barbarea pracoz), a native
also of Britain, the continent of Europe, and North America. BrrTER C. (cardaminc) is another cruciferous genus, with linear pods, and flowers sometimes of considerable beauty, as in the common bitter C. or cuckoo-flower (C. pratensis), also known by, the name of lady's smock—a very common ornament of moist meadows in Britain, with' white, blush-colored, or light purple flowers; the flowers of which are stimulant and diaphoretic, and had at one time a high reputation for the cure of epilepsy, particularly in children, and still retain a place in the pharmacopoeias. The young leaves of this species, as well as of a amara, a species with still more beautiful flowers, and a kirsuta, a small flowered species, both British, are used as salads, but more generally in some continental countries than in Britain, being pungent with a little bitterness. The leaves of a amara are brought to market in large quantities in Bohemia and Saxony. The juice of C. pratensis is much used as an anti-scorbutic in the n. of Europe, to counteract the effect of the constant use of salted meat and salted fish. WATER C. (nasturtium ogi cinale) is a perennial aquatic cruciferous plant, much used both in England and on the continent of Europe as a spring salad. The genus nasturtium, which contains a con siderable number of species, has a spreading calyx, and a nearly cylindrical pod. N. officinale is a native of almost all parts of the world. The leaves have a pungent bit terish taste, with a little saltness. They possess medicinal properties similar to those of SCURVY-GRASS. In favorable weather, they may be procured in winter as well as in spring, and may be frequently cut over during a season. The plant is cultivated to a considerable extent both in Germany and near London, in wide ditches, which are filled with slowly flowing and pure water. It grows best in clear shallow running water, with a bottom of sand or gravel. Mud is injurious both to its growth and to the flavor of its leaves. For INDIAN CRESS, see TnOf.RoLUAL