SAUCE ALONE 137 
It is a sand-loving plant, and requires a dry sand soil or sandy 
loam, derived from older sandy rocks, grits, and sandstones. 
It is galled by Cecedomyza stsymbrit. A beetle, Ceuthorhynchus 
assimilis, visits it, also the beetles PhyWotreta nemorum, P. ochripes, 
Poiphagus nasturti, P. sisymbriz. 
Theophrastus gave the name Szsymérzum, which was the Greek 
name of a water-mint, and officzena/e means medicinal. 
The plant is called Bank Cress, Hedge Mustard, Hedgeweed, 
Lucifer Matches, Crambling Rocket, Sauce Alone. 
Hedge Mustard was eaten as a relish with salt fish, hence the last 
name, and was used in sauce. It was held to be diuretic, expectorant, 
and was regarded as a remedy for asthma, hoarseness, and chronic 
coughs. This plant has a somewhat saline taste. The seeds are 
pungent, but not so strong as mustard. 
EssENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS :— 
31. Sesymbrium officinale, Scop.—Stem erect, branched, divaricate, 
leaves at base runcinate, points recurved, terminal Jobe hastate, upper 
linear or absent, flowers small, yellow, pods appressed on short 
pedicels, downy, subulate. 
Sauce Alone (Sisymbrium Alliaria, Scop.) 
There are no deposits from which this is known in a fossil state in 
the British Isles. It is a plant which is found in the Temperate Zone 
in Europe, North Africa, Temperate West Asia, as far as the Hima- 
layas. In Great Britain it is found everywhere except in Cardigan, 
Flint, S. Lines, Stirling, Mid Perth, Main Argyle, Cantire, S. Ebudes, 
Mid and N. Ebudes, Sutherland, Caithness, and the Northern Isles. 
From the Grampians it ranges southwards, up to a height of 1000 ft. 
in England, but it is less common in Scotland and Ireland. 
Garlic Mustard grows with Hedge Mustard along the wayside and 
beneath the hedge, or it may line the ditch which flanks the highway. 
Once used as a garnishing it may to some extent owe its frequency 
around a village, or its occurrence on highways, to this cause. A 
rather moist habitat suits it best, though it will grow on a high bank 
where there is shade enough to maintain a fair supply of moisture 
continuously. It manages to win its way to the front in spring to the 
exclusion of all else, but may be seen with the Greater Stitchwort, Red 
Campion, Lords-and-Ladies, &c. 
Jack-by-the-hedge is a tall, handsome plant, with an erect habit, 
and numerous heart-shaped, toothed leaves alternately arranged, the 
