Vegetable substances used for the food of man / by Dr. Lankester. With illustrations.

  • Lankester, Edwin, 1814-1874.
Date:
[1850?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / by Dr. Lankester. With illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    203/410 (page 193)
    water-cress, and five in the parsnip, are also an ob- vious distinction. If they are in seed the parsnip has capsules, the water-cress pods. The water-cress has become an object of cultiva~ tion; and the demand of the metropolis and of other large towns for this favourite vegetable will, probably, render the natural products of our brooks less and Jess in request. Few wild plants are the same under Cultivation ; but even when their qualities are not changed by the care of man, the cultivated sort soon supersedes the uncultivated. The cost of rearing them at will is less than that of searching: for them under the difficulties which attend all spon- taneous produce. In a pretty valley called Springhead, situated in Kent, at a short distance from Gravesend, water- cresses are grown on a very extensive scale. The plants, neatly trimmed, growing in regular rows, and appearing under a limpid stream of purest water, give the idea of careful cultivation; and present themselves under a more pleasing form to be plucked for the table, than when found the in- habitants of ditches. For the purpose of this cul- ture a clayey soil is selected, in which shallow beds scarcely a foot deep are made, having a slight inclination from one end to the other, and into which a small stream of water is introduced. At the bottom of these beds the cress is planted in rows, at about half a foot apart. Dams of six inches high are made at intervals across each bed, their number and frequency being regulated by the length of the bed and its degree of inclination, in such sort, that when these dams are full, the water may rise at least three inches over all the plants of each compartment. The water will thus circulate throughout, and-the plants, if not allowed to flower, will furnish an abun- dant succession of young tops throughout the spring, 8