| Title: | Garden nasturtium, Indian cress |
| Original Title: | Nasturce ou Cresson d'Inde |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 11 (1765), p. 33 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Ann-Marie Thornton [Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey] |
| Subject terms: |
Gardening
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Source: | Russell, Terence M. and Anne Marie Thornton. Gardens and landscapes in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert : the letterpress articles and selected engravings. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999. Used with permission. |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.204 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Garden nasturtium, Indian cress." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Ann-Marie Thornton. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2013. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.204>. Trans. of "Nasturce ou Cresson d'Inde," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 11. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Garden nasturtium, Indian cress." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Ann-Marie Thornton. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.204 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Nasturce ou Cresson d'Inde," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 11:33 (Paris, 1765). |
Garden nasturtium. Indian cress also known as ‘petite capucine’ or ‘câpres capucines’. [1] It has a long, climbing stem and round leaves from which reddish peduncles spring up. Each peduncle supports a pungent flower which has five yellow petals speckled with red. [2] The calyx is composed of a single unit divided into five parts and has a long spur in the form of a cowl, which once the flower has faded becomes a fruit containing three capsules enclosing the seeds.
This plant is usually cultivated in gardens: the flowers are pickled and eaten in salads.
Notes
1. Tropaeolum majus, not to be confused with Nasturtium officinale, or watercress. Nasturtium is ‘capucine’ in French, and ‘câpres capucines’ are nasturtium seeds.
2. The plant is named from the Latin ‘tropaeum’, meaning trophy: it was formerly grown up pyramidal poles and netting, inspiring Linnaeus to compare the flowers to the captured, blood-speckled, golden helmets decorating the trophies made from tree trunks which were erected as a sign of victory in battle. The orbicular leaves were likened to the captured shields also ornamenting the trophies (Huxley et al., 1992, iv.519-20).