Large-Seeded Round. Vil.
This is a sub-variety of the Large Round, and is much cultivated in Germany and Holland. The leaves are longer, narrower, and thinner, and more tender when eaten; but the Large Round is preferred by gardeners for marketing, as it bears transportation better. The seeds are about twice as large.
Italian Corn Salad. Vil.
Valerianella eriocarpa.
The Italian Corn Salad is a distinct species, and differs from the Common Corn Salad in its foliage, and, to some extent, in its general habit. It is a hardy annual, about eighteen inches high. The radical leaves are pale-green, large, thick, and fleshy,—those of the stalk long, narrow, and pointed; the flowers are small, pale-blue, washed or stained with red; the seeds are of a light-brown color, somewhat compressed, convex on one side, hollowed on the opposite, and retain their vitality five years,—nearly twenty-two thousand are contained in an ounce.
It is cultivated and used in the same manner as the species before described. It is, however, earlier, milder in flavor, and slower in running to seed. The leaves are sometimes employed early in spring as a substitute for Spinach; but their downy or hairy character renders them less valuable for salad purposes than those of some of the varieties of the Common Corn Salad.
CRESS, OR PEPPERGRASS.
Lepidium sativum.
The Common Cress of the garden is a hardy annual, and a native of Persia. When in flower, the stem of the plant is smooth and branching, and about fifteen inches high. The leaves are variously divided, and are plain or curled, according to the variety; the flowers are white, very small, and produced in groups, or bunches; seeds small, oblong, rounded, of a reddish-brown color, and of a peculiar, pungent odor,—about fourteen thousand are contained in an ounce, and they retain their germinative properties five years.