Cress is a common name given to small-leafed plants in the Mustard family. All have a peppery tang obtained from the mustard side of the family.
Cress is the most important of the eighty or so different species of the genus Lepidium of the Mustard family. This fast-growing plant is never allowed to grow to its full capacity of one or two feet, but is always harvested two to three days after germination. Cress is a single species of African origin, but known by a myriad of common names, leaf shapes, and sizes. What they do have in common is their hot-sweet, peppery bite distinct from watercress and tasting more like fresh horseradish than greens.
All the cresses are anti-scorbutic, that is, useful against the scurvy. The ancient Greeks also believed them to be good for the brain.
The ordinary "mustard and cress" of our salads is good for rheumatic patients, while the water-cress is valuable in cases of tubercular disease. Anemic patients may also eat freely of it on account of the iron it contains. Care should be taken, however, from whence it is procured, as a disease peculiar to sheep but communicable to man may be carried by it. It should not be gathered from streams running through meadows inhabited by sheep.
Cress is the most important of the eighty or so different species of the genus Lepidium of the Mustard family. This fast-growing plant is never allowed to grow to its full capacity of one or two feet, but is always harvested two to three days after germination. Cress is a single species of African origin, but known by a myriad of common names, leaf shapes, and sizes. What they do have in common is their hot-sweet, peppery bite distinct from watercress and tasting more like fresh horseradish than greens.
All the cresses are anti-scorbutic, that is, useful against the scurvy. The ancient Greeks also believed them to be good for the brain.
The ordinary "mustard and cress" of our salads is good for rheumatic patients, while the water-cress is valuable in cases of tubercular disease. Anemic patients may also eat freely of it on account of the iron it contains. Care should be taken, however, from whence it is procured, as a disease peculiar to sheep but communicable to man may be carried by it. It should not be gathered from streams running through meadows inhabited by sheep.
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