100 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



The habitat, as in the case of the other species 

 that are colonists, is waste or cultivated ground, 

 cornfields. I have found it on railway embankments 

 and in similar places. Chalky ground appears to 

 suit it well. 



There is no mistaking the habit of the Cabbage 

 and Mustard. The stem is erect and furrowed, with 

 ascending branches. The plant is smooth or hairy, 

 with spreading or bent-back hairs. The leaves are 

 pinnatifid, including the upper leaves, or lyrate, the 

 terminal lobe being the largest, the lobes oblong, 

 toothed ; and the segments are also irregularly cut 

 and lobed and rough. 



The flowers are yellow and large. The stalks are 

 spreading in fruit. The pods or siliquas are one to 

 two inches long, stiffly hairy, cylindrical, beaded or 

 knotted, not so long as the beak, which is sword- 

 shaped, flat and stout, ribbed, sometimes curved, and 

 is persistent, being one-seeded and hairy at the base, 

 the hairs white. The valves are equal to the beak, 

 and stiffly hairy, concave, five-nerved, the hairs 

 obscuring the nerves. The cells are one- to three- 

 seeded. The seeds are nearly round and pale with a 

 yellow seed-coat or testa. 



White Mustard flowers between June and August. 

 It is a herbaceous annual. It is from i to 3 ft. 

 in height. 



The flowers are rather conspicuous, and contain 

 honey at the base of the stamens. The anthers and 

 stigma ripen more or less together. The plant is in 



