THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 153 



appearance along the railroad promoted by the person named, 

 the "ball mustard" (AV^/ta paniciilata) , the hare's-ear mustard" 

 (Coriiiyia oricntalis) and the "treacle mustard," or "garlic 

 mustard" {Allaria officiiniHs.) This latter is also known 

 as "garlic-root," "poor man's mustard," imd "hedge garlic." 

 Among the ancient names are "Jack-by-the-hedge" and "sauce- 

 alone." The word "garlic" here employed, like the technical 

 name, refers to the onion-like odor. Sisymhriiiin Sophia 

 is known as '"Herb-So^ihia," "flax-weed" and "flix-weed," 

 the last two given this species and several others for a fancied 

 resemblance to the flax {Linum.) Sisynnhriuni Thalianum 

 though a mustard, reverts to cress nomenclature and is the 

 "wall-cress," "mouse-car cress" and "Thale cress." The 

 last name is derived from Johann Thai an obscure botanist 

 but why it is applied to this plant we do not know. The name 

 of "turkey-potl" is equally unintelligible. 



The true "JMithridate mustard" is assumed to be Thlas- 

 pi ari'cnsis, tliough other plants have been given the name 

 and the term "treacle-wort" applied to it seems to confirm 

 the assumption. The word "mithridate" alludes to an old 

 idea that Mithridates \'I, king of Pontus, made himself im- 

 mune to poisons by taking them in small doses and then in- 

 creasing the amount until such substances had no effect on 

 him. In medicine a mithridate is a substance that will coun- 

 teract poisons but our plant has no virtues of this kind. Ad- 

 ditional names are "dish mustard," "field penny-cress," "bas- 

 tard cress," "French-weed" and "fanweed." "Penny-cress" 

 appears to refer to the round seed-pods and "fanweed" may 

 be derived from the same source. How the name of "French- 

 weed" came to be applied is a mystery to me. No doubt it 

 has an interesting history if we could fathom it. In these 

 pages Prof. Nelson has recently noted that in our Northwest 



