278 A COMPENDIUM UF 
in diameter. ‘The testa is reddish-brown, in- 
clining to black, finely netted, and quite hard. 
The pod contains about the same number of 
seeds as the White Mustard. Often the seeds 
are covered by a light pellicle, which gives to 
them an appearance of having gray seeds mixed 
with them. The seed is made up of two cotyl- 
edons, with a curved radicle and a yellowish- 
green embryo. Odor faint, taste pungent and 
acrid, and contains mucilage, stunegrin, sint- 
grin a fixed and volatile ozl, the latter being the 
oil of mustard of the stores. Mustard is diu- 
retic, stimulant, and emetic; externally a rube- 
facient, and forms the well-known mustard 
plaster. The oil and liniment are officinal. 
The flour or ground mustard of the stores is 
usually a mixture of both the white and black 
seeds, and when ‘mixed with water it gives off 
an acridity and pungency which was lying dor- 
mant and inactive. This fact is asingular one, 
for the seeds under pressure only yield a bland, 
fixed oil, without any flavor of the mustard. 
The Black Mustard seed is occasionally adulter- 
ated with turnip and cabbage seed, but rarely 
for the purpose of fraud, but by accident. 
Staphisagria, Stavesacre, Delphinium Sta- 
phisagria,—Natural order Ranunculacee. Na- 
tive of southern Europe. This little biennial 
rarely attains a greater height than 4 feet, and 
possesses a soft, pubescent, erect stem adorned 
with dark-green leaves, which are quite broad 
and palmately cut, the segments of which are 
entire and acutely pointed. Flowers blue and 
ina loose raceme; petals 4 in number, with 5 
petaloid sepals, the upper one shortly spurred. 
