and curled, they are well adapted for garnishing. It should be sown thinly, in drills, in good soil in the open borders, in March, April and May, and for winter and spring use at the foot of a south wall early in September, and about the middle of October.
Water-cress.—“Water-cress” (Nasturtium officinale) is a member of the same natural order, and a native of Great Britain. Although now so largely used, it does not appear to have been cultivated in England prior to the 19th century, though in Germany, especially near Erfurt, it had been grown long previously. Its flavour is due to an essential oil containing sulphur. Water-cress is largely cultivated in shallow ditches, prepared in wet, low-lying meadows, means being provided for flooding the ditches at will. Where the amount of water available is limited, the ditches are arranged at successively higher levels, so as to allow of the volume admitted to the upper ditch being passed successively to the others. The ditches are usually puddled with clay, which is covered to the depth of 9 to 12 in. with well-manured soil.
A stock of plants may be raised in two ways—by cuttings, and by seeds. If a stock is to be raised from cuttings, the desired quantity of young shoots is gathered—those sold in bunches for salad serve the purpose well—and reduced where necessary to about 3 in. in length, the basal and frequently rooted portion being rejected. They are dibbled thickly into one of the ditches, and only enough water admitted to just cover the soil. If the start is made in late spring, the cuttings will be rooted in a week. They are allowed to remain for another week or two, and are then taken up and dropped about 9 in. apart into the other ditches, which have been slightly flooded to receive them. There is no need to plant them—the young roots will very soon be securely anchored. The volume of water is increased as the plants grow. If raised from seed, the seed-bed is prepared as for cuttings, and seed sown either in drills or broadcast. No flooding is done until the seedlings are up. Water is then admitted, the level being raised as the plants grow. When 5 or 6 in. high, they are taken up and dropped into their permanent quarters precisely like those raised from cuttings.
Cultivated as above described, the plants afford frequent cuttings of large clean cress of excellent flavour for market purposes. Sooner or later growth will become less vigorous and flowering shoots will be produced. This will be accompanied by a pronounced deterioration of the remaining vegetative shoots. These signs will be interpreted by the grower to mean that his plants, as a market crop, are worn out. He will therefore take steps to repeat the routine of culture above described. In the winter the ditches are flooded to protect the cress from frost.
The best-flavoured water-cress is produced in the pure water of running streams over chalk or gravel soil. Should the water be contaminated by sewage or other undesirable matter, the plants not only absorb some of the impurities but also serve to anchor much of the solid particles washed as scum among them. This is extremely difficult to dislodge by washing, and renders the cress a source of danger as food.
Water-cress for domestic use may be raised as a kitchen-garden crop if frequently watered overhead. Beds to afford cress during the summer should be made in broad trenches on a border facing north. It may also be raised in pots or pans stood in saucers of water and frequently watered overhead.
In recent years in America attention has been paid to the injury done to water-cress beds by the “water-cress sow-bug” (Mancasellus brachyurus), and the “water-cress leaf-beetle” (Phaedon aeruginosa). Another species of Phaedon is known in England as “blue beetle” or “mustard beetle,” and is a pest also of mustard, cabbage and kohlrabi (see F. H. Chittenden, in Bulletin 66, part ii. of Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture, 1907).
The name “nasturtium” is applied in gardens, but incorrectly, to species of Tropaeolum.
CRESSENT, CHARLES (1685–1768), French furniture-maker, sculptor and fondeur-ciseleur. As the second son of François Cressent, sculpteur du roi, and grandson of Charles Cressent, a furniture-maker of Amiens, who also became a sculptor, he
inherited the tastes and aptitudes which were likely to make a
finished designer and craftsman. Even more important perhaps
was the fact that he was a pupil of André Charles Boulle.
Trained in such surroundings, it is not surprising that he should
have reached a degree of achievement which has to a great
extent justified the claim that he was the best decorative artist
of the 18th century. Cressent’s distinction is closely connected
with the regency, but his earlier work had affinities with the
school of Boulle, while his later pieces were full of originality.
He was an artist in the widest sense of the word. He not
only designed and made furniture, but created the magnificent
gilded enrichments which are so characteristic of his work. He
was likewise a sculptor, and among his plastic work is known
to have been a bronze bust of Louis, duc d’Orléans, the son
of the regent, for whom Cressent had made one of the finest
examples of French furniture of the 18th century—the famous
médaillier now in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Cressent’s bronze
mounts were executed with a sharpness of finish and a grace and
vigour of outline which were hardly excelled by his great contemporary
Jacques Caffieri. His female figures placed at the
corners of tables are indeed among the most delicious achievements
of the great days of the French metal worker. Much of
Cressent’s work survives, and can be identified; the Louvre and
the Wallace collection are especially rich in it, and his commode
at Hertford House with gilt handles representing Chinese dragons
is perhaps the most elaborate piece he ever produced. The work
of identification is rendered comparatively easy in his case by the
fact that he published catalogues of three sales of his work. These
catalogues are highly characteristic of the man, who shared in no
small degree the personal bravoura of Cellini, and could sometimes
execute almost as well. He did not hesitate to describe himself
as the author of “a clock worthy to be placed in the very finest
cabinets,” “the most distinguished bronzes,” or pieces of “the
most elegant form adorned with bronzes of extra richness.” He
worked much in marqueterie, both in tortoiseshell and in brilliant
coloured woods. He was indeed an artist to whom colour
appealed with especial force. The very type and exemplar of
the “feeling” of the regency, he is worthy to have given his own
name to some of the fashions which he deduced from it.
CRESSWELL, SIR CRESSWELL (1794–1863), English judge,
was a descendant of an old Northumberland family, and was born
at Newcastle in 1794. He was educated at the Charterhouse and
at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1814,
and M.A. four years later. Having chosen the profession of the
law he studied at the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar in
1819. He joined the northern circuit, and was not long in earning
a distinguished position among his professional brethren. In 1837
he entered parliament as Conservative member for Liverpool,
and he soon gained a reputation as an acute and learned debater
on all constitutional questions. In January 1842 he was made a
judge of the court of common pleas, being knighted at the same
time; and this post he occupied for sixteen years. When the
new court for probate, divorce and matrimonial causes was
established (1858), Sir Cresswell Cresswell was requested by the
Liberal government to become its first judge and undertake the
arduous task of its organization. Although he had already
earned a right to retire, and possessed large private wealth,
he accepted this new task, and during the rest of his life devoted
himself to it most assiduously and conscientiously, with complete
satisfaction to the public. In one case only, out of the very large
number on which he pronounced judgment, was his decision
reversed. His death was sudden. By a fall from his horse on the
11th of July 1863 his knee-cap was injured. He was recovering
from this when on the 29th of the same month he died of disease
of the heart.
See Foss’s Lives of the Judges; E. Manson, Builders of our Law (1904).
CRESSY, HUGH PAULINUS DE (c. 1605–1674), English Benedictine monk, whose religious name was Serenus, was born at Wakefield, Yorkshire, about 1605. He went to Oxford at the age of fourteen, and in 1626 became a fellow of Merton College. Having taken orders, he rose to the dignity of dean of Leighlin,
