116 
The word ravison, as a commercial term applied to oil-seed 
in England, appears to be subject to considerable elasticity of 
employment. Simmonds (Handbook of British Commerce, 
1898) defines ravisons as the French name for rape seed, while 
Laucks (Commercial Oils, 1919, p. 57), in writing of rape-oil, 
mentions that allied seeds, such as ravison and mustard, some- 
times are mixed unavoidably with rape-seed. Here ravison does 
not signify rape, but evidently implies the seeds of certain other 
plants growing among a crop of rape. Bolton and Revis (Fatty 
Foods, 1913, p. 212) state that ravison oil is derived from the 
seeds of a wild variety of Brassica campestris from the Black Sea 
district. A sample of seed in the Museum at Kew, received under 
the name of Black Sea Wild Rape, may be classed as ravison, 
and is probably the type of seed intended in the above quotation 
from Bolton and Revis. The sample has been found to consist 
chiefly of Charlock (Sinapis arvensis, L.) together with some 
“ Sarepta Mustard ” and other seeds. 
A letter received last year by the Director of the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Kew, from Prof. D. Bois, gives the information 
that in France the name Ravison is used to denote the seeds of 
different species of Sinapis imported into Marseilles and other 
ports, oil being extracted from the seeds and employed for 
different purposes, notably for the manufacture of soap. Prof. 
Bois adds that these seeds come principally from the Orient, 
and that they apparently consist chiefly of Sinapis arvensis, 
S. dissecta, S. juncea, &e. A particular region of the Orient is 
indicated by the mention of Sinapis dissecta, which is cultivated 
in South Russia, and is often found in considerable quantity in 
“ rape-cake ” of Russian origin.* The S. juncea referred to by 
Prof. Bois may therefore be described as ‘ Sarepta Mustard,” 
this name being given to a species of Brassica, which is cultivated 
in Southern Russia, and is described either as B. Besseriana, 
z. or B. juncea, L. The first of these two names appears in 
Engler’s Pflanzenreich (Heft 70; iv. 105, p. 55) as a synonym of 
B. juncea (L.) Czern. et Coss. (Chinese and Indian Mustard). It 
may be mentioned here however that Kinzel (loc. cit., p. 184) 
retained the name B. Besseriana for Russian Sarepta Mustard, 
holding the latter to be distinct from B. juncea, and noted that 
the mucilaginous epidermis of the seed showed distinct cellular 
_ structure, a character which he did not find in any of the forms 
of Indian Mustard (B. juncea) examined by him.7 
The use of the word ravison in France, as explained by 
Prof. Bois, is thus not confined to the seed of a single species of 
Brassica (incl. Sinapis), but is applied rather to a mixture © 
seeds, of which Charlock may be one, and “ Sarepta Mustard ”’ 
another. Black Sea Wild Rape,” being of similar composition, 
* Kinzel, Landw. Versuchs-Stationen, vol. 52 (1899), p. 185. 
t This difference was verified in the case of two samples in the Kew 
Museum, namely seeds of ‘‘ Sarepta Mustard ” from Black Sea Wild Rape, 
and seeds of RB. juncea from Dharwar, India. 
