NASTU/RTIUM*. Linnean Class and Order. TETRADYNA'MIA †, SILIQUOSA +. Natural Order. CRUCIFER.ES, Juss. Gen. Pl. p. 237.-Sm. Gr. of Bot. p. 138.; Engl. Bot. v. iii. p. 153.-Rich. by Macgilliv. p. 498. CRUCI'FERE; subord. PLEURORHI'ZEE; tribe, ARABI'DEA; Lindl. Syn. pp. 20 & 22.; Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. PP. 14 to 18.-Loud. Hort. Brit. pp. 498 & 199.; Mag. Nat. Hist. v. i. pp. 143 & 239.-Don's Gen. Syst. of Gard. and Bot. v. i. pp. 146 and 147.—Mack. Fl. Hibern. p. 16.-ROSALES; subord. RHŒADOSE; sect. RHÆADINE; type, BRASSICACEA; subty. ARABIDÆ; Burn. Outl. of Bot. pp. 614,784, 847, 854, & 856.-SILIQUOSA, Linn. GEN. CHAR. Calyx (fig. 1.) inferior, equal at the base, of 4 eggoblong, blunt, spreading, somewhat coloured, deciduous sepals. Corolla cruciform, of 4 inversely egg-shaped, spreading, entire petals, tapering into short claws (see fig. 2.); sometimes wanting. Filaments (see fig. 3.) 6, awl-shaped, simple; the 2 shortest each with a gland at the base withinside. Anthers incumbent, somewhat heart-shaped. Germen (fig. 4.) cylindrical. Style upright, short, cylindrical. Stigma blunt, notched. Pod (fig. 5.) nearly cylindrical, (sometimes short); valves (see fig. 6.) concave, neither ribbed nor keeled. Seeds (fig. 7.) small, irregularly attached in two rows, not bordered. Cotyledons accumbent, (o=). The spreading calyx, equal at the base; and the nearly cylindrical, shortish pod, with concave keelless valves; will distinguish this from other genera, with accumbent cotyledons, in the same class and order. Four species British. NASTUʼRTIUM OFFICINA'LE. Officinal Nasturtium. Common Water-Cress. SPEC. CHAR. Leaves pinnate; leaflets roundish-heart-shaped, wavy. Brown in Ait. Hort. Kew. (2nd ed.) v. iv. p. 110.—Sm. Engl. Fl. v. iii. p. 192.-With. (7th ed.) v. iii. p. 770.--Gray's Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 678.-Lind. Syn. p. 25.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 304.; Fl. Scot. p. 201.-Grev. Fl. Edin. p. 144.-Fl. Devon. pp. 111 & 189.-Johnst. Fl. of Berw. v. i. p. 144-Winch's Fl. of Northumb. & Durhain, p. 44.- Walker's Fl. of Oxf. p. 188.-Don's Gen. Syst. of Gard. & Bot. v. i. p. 155.-Loud. Ency. of Gard. (new ed.) p. 864. paragr. 4461-4467.-Bab. Fl. Bath. p. 4.-Mack. Catal. of Pl. of Irel. p. 61.; Fl. Hib. p. 18.-Nasturtium aquaticum, sive Crateræ sium, Johnson's Gerarde, p. 257.-Sisymbrium Nasturtium, Engl. Bot. t. 855.-Curt. Fl. Lond. t. Woodv. Med. Bot. v. i. p. 134. t. 48. Curt. Brit. Entom. vol. v. t. 201.-Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 916.-Huds. Fl. Angl. p. 296.-Willd. Sp. Pl. v. iii. pt. 1. p. 489.Sm. Fl. Brit. v. ii. p. 700.--Lightf. Fl. Scot. v. i. p. 350.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 206.-Abbot's Fl. Bedf. p. 143.-Davies' Welsh Bot. p. 64.-Thornton's Fam. Herb. p. 617, with a fig.-Purt. Midl. Fl. v. i. p. 306.-Relh. Fl. Cant. (3rd ed.) p. 265.-Sisymbrium Cardamine, seu Nasturtium aquaticum, Ray's Syn. p. 300. Fig. 1. Calyx.-Fig. 2. A Petal.-Fig. 3. Stamens.-Fig. 4. Germen.-Fig. 5. A Pod.-Fig. 6. Ditto, with the valves separated, showing the septum and seeds.--Fig. 7. A seed.-Fig. 1, 3, & 7, a little magnified. * From nasus tortus, a convulsed nose; an effect supposed to be produced by the acrid and pungent quality of this plant. Sir W. J. HOOKER. LOCALITIES. In springs, brooks, rivulets, ponds, and watery ditches; common. Perennial.-Flowers in June and July. Root of many long, simple, whitish fibres, the lowermost fixed in the soil, the rest suspended in the water. Stems many, spreading, usually creeping at the base, from 1 to 2 feet high, angular, branched, leafy, mostly smooth, but occasionally, when growing out of the water, a little hairy. Leaves alternate, smooth, deep shining green, sometimes tinged with dark purplish-brown, pinnate (winged), of 5 or 7, roundish, wavy leaflets, the terminal one the largest. Stipulas none. Flowers in a flattish corymb, which soon lengthens out into a raceme. Calyx purplish. Corolla small, white, or slightly purple. Pods about an inch long, tumid and undulated at the sides, smooth, curved upwards, each on an horizontal stalk, variable in length. There are 2 or 3 varieties of this plant, but they are of little consequence. Water-cress is a native in rivulets throughout the world. It is universally used as an early and wholesome Spring salad, either alone or with brook-lime or scurvy-grass; and is eaten fasting, or with bread and butter, by those who have faith in its antiscorbutic virtues. The juice, decocted with that of scurvygrass and Seville oranges, forms the popular remedy called Spring Juices. In France it is not only used as salad, but dressed like spinach, and the picked leaves served with roasted fowl compose the favourite Poulet au cressons. late it has been cultivated on many acres of land in the vicinity of London, whence the markets are supplied daily throughout the year; but Water-cress grown in this way is far inferior to that grown in natural streams. In the latter state it is gathered by the peasantry in the neighbourhood of large towns, where the sale of it forms an important though humble branch of domestic commerce. THE WATER-CRESS GIRL. "She leaves her bed while yet the dew Is sparkling on the flower; And ere Aurora's golden hue Hath tinged the old church tower Ere yet the matin bell hath toll'd, Before the shadowy mountain mist Her way is o'er the dewy meads, And by the violet dell, To where a plank her footsteps leads, And then she steps from stone to stone, And many a lily decks the scene, Ah, little need she blush to see And her dark tresses wand'ring free In all their native grace. No worm hath marr'd her cheek's young bloom, Upon her brow hath place; For love-false love,-hath never yet Of |