Water Cress.
Botanical name:
Nasturtium aquaticum.
A WILD plant common with us in ditches, and shallow rivers. It is a foot high, the stalks are round, thick, but not very upright, of a pale green, and much branched; the leaves are of a fresh and bright green, divided in a winged manner and obtuse; the flowers are small and white, and there is generally seen a kind of spike of the flowers and seeds at the top of the stalks.
The leaves are used; they may be eaten in the manner of garden cress, and are full as pleasant, and they are excellent against the scurvy. The juice expressed from them has the same virtue, and works also powerfully by urine, and opens obstructions.
