MUSTARD FAMILY 49 



Locs. — Eureka, Tracy 3242; Truckee, Sonne; Berkeley, Jepson 126f ; Elmira, Jepson; Eubio 

 Canon (hills w.), San Gabriel Mts., Peirson 306; Eseondido, C. V. Meyer 9. 



Eefs. — Brassica campestris L. Sp. PI. 666 (1753), type European; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. 

 Cal. 216 (1901), ed. 2, 184 (1911), Man. 423 (1925). 



2. B. arvensis Rabenh. Charlock. Stem branching, 1 to 2 feet high; herb- 

 age light green, hispid with scattered hairs or merely hispidulose; leaf -blades 

 pinnatifid or lobed or merely toothed, the upper rhombic, petioled or sessile by a 

 narrow base, not clasping; petals 4 to 6 lines long; pods somewhat constricted 

 between the seeds, 1 to l^/^ inches long, with 3 to 8 seeds in each cell; beak flattish, 

 Ys as long as the body, often containing a seed; valves nerved. 



Native of Europe, sparingly naturalized. Apr. 



Locs. — Yreka; Eureka, Tracy 4635; Napa, Jepson 59e; Vacaville, Jepson 5301; Berkeley, 

 Jepson 80g; San Francisco, Elsie Zeile; Alviso, Jepson 15,187. 



Eefs. — Brassica arvensis Eabenh. Fi. Lusatica 1:184 (1839); B.S.P. Prel. Cat. N. Y. 5 

 (1888); Jepson, FL W. Mid. CaL 217 (1901), ed. 2, 184 (1911), Man, 423 (1925). Sinapis 

 arvensis L. Sp. PI. 668 (1753), tvpe European. B. sinapistrum Boiss. Voy. Espag. 2:39 (1839- 

 45) ; B. & W. Bot. CaL 1:40 (1876). 



3. B. nigra Koch. Black Mustard. Stems 3 to 6 or even 12 feet high; 

 herbage dark green (not glaucous), glabrous or with some scattered stiff hairs; 

 leaves all petiolate; blades of the lower leaves lyrately pinnatifid or divided, the 

 terminal segment very large, shallowly lobed and sharply dentate; blades of the 

 upper leaves less lobed or the uppermost linear and entire and commonly droop- 

 ing or pendulous; racemes long and dense; petals 'iYi lines long, much longer than 

 the sepals; pods closely appressed to the axis of the raceme, torulose, indistinctly 

 4 sided, beaked by the style; seeds nearly black, highly pungent. 



Naturalized from Europe, everywhere common at low altitudes though rare 

 in the deserts. Very abundant in interior grainfields. May-July. 



Historical note. — In pioneer days Brassica nigra was generally of ranker growth than at 

 present, forming thickets 8 to 12 feet high, which became, except for the cattle paths, as impene- 

 trable as brushwood. In the early eighties of the last century such thickets existed for many 

 leagues all about the settlement of mainly adobe houses known as Los Angeles. Children were 

 warned not to wander into the Black Mustard "groves," since they frequently became lost (H. A. 

 Dutton) . Birds nested in the branches of these "trees" and, eating the seeds, disseminated widely 

 the mustard pest. 



According to A. B. Lambert (Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 17:449, — 1837), this is the Mustard 

 Tree of the Bible (Matt. 13:31-32). In any event Brassica nigra is indigenous throughout the 

 Mediterranean region. From the Mediterranean, probably from Spain by way of Mexico, it was, 

 with scarcely any doubt, introduced into California during the Franciscan Mission period. Folk 

 legends have come down which picture the friars dropping the seed at intervals on the flats and 

 in the passes, while threading the unknown coastal valleys as they penetrated northward towards 

 the later San Francisco, in order that the expedition might, by the growing plants, easily find its 

 way back again over the same route the next year. On the other hand printed records which use 

 the scientific binomial in the designation of the species as occurring in Alta California during 

 the Spanish period and early American period are very scarce, perhaps indeed quite lacking. 

 No Brassica species is mentioned for California in Bentham's Botany of the Voyage of the 

 Sulphur, Hooker and Arnott's Botany of Beechey's Voyage, Hooker's Flora Boreali-Americana, 

 Presl's Eeliquiae Haenkeanae nor in the Linnaea papers of Chamisso and Schlechtendahl. Even 

 in the highly interesting botanical parts of the Pacific Railroad Survey Eeports, with the Sur- 

 vey's list of plants as collected by the various expeditions, there is no mention of Brassica m 

 California. It is somewhat difficult to reconeUe this lack of scientific record with the popular 

 theory of the verv early introduction of Brassica nigra except upon the ground that the botanists 

 of the first expeditions were naturally absorbed in collecting the striking novelties of the Cali- 

 fornia flora. Doubtless so common an alien as Brassica nigra, well known m other parts of the 

 world, was disregarded by scientific travelers as unworthy of their attention, as not meriting col- 

 lection or record. That the printed record is, in this matter, deficient, is evidenced by the testi- 

 mony of the early settlers. These American pioneers in California have, by way of reminiscence, 

 related seeing the Black Mustard in gold days. One of them, James McCrory, tells us ol this 

 species filling with yellow the Santa Clara Valley and other valleys bordering San Francisco i^ay 

 during the fifties of the last century. There was comparatively little cultivation of the soil m tne 



