74 CRUCIFER^ 



in the corn-fields, its yellow flowers gleaming there all the summer long. It 

 is, like all Mustards, very pungent, and might be cultivated for its seeds, but 

 that their flavour is not so pleasant as that of the species commonly reared 

 for the mustard of our tables. The flowers look bright among the green 

 spring blades, and at the later season have such floral companions as the poet 

 has described : — 



' ' Earth is very beautiful amid these steeps and valleys ! 

 Golden wheat now quivers rip'ning in the sun. 

 Up yon hazel'd slope the farmer loudly rallies 



Rcai)ers to tlieir morning task ; lo, it is begun ! 

 Wild flowers around their varied tints are showing, 



Sweeps of yellow Charlock around the fields are seen. 

 The scarlet hoods of poppies, 'mid dark green turnips glowing, 

 Are brighter than tlie ruby gems that dock an Indian queen. 

 Earth is very beautiful 



Amid her valleys green !" 



The Charlock is, in various counties, termed Cherlock, G-arlock, Chadlock, 

 or Cadlock. In Yorkshire it is called Runsh, and in many places is known 

 by the name of Corn-mustard. Its young tops are boiled and eaten by 

 country people. 



2. White Mustard [S. alba). — Pods bristly, rugged, spreading, shorter 

 than the flat two-edged beak ; leaves pinnatifid. Plant annual. This plant 

 grows on waste ground and by field borders, and has large yellow flowers in 

 June : its young leaves are used as salad. 



3. Common Mustard {S. nigra). — Pods quadrangular, smooth, slightly 

 beaked ; lower leaves lyrate ; upper, linear, smooth. This species and the 

 last are the plants commonly cultivated for the mustard of commerce, and 

 large fields are sown for this produce, in Essex and other counties. The 

 pungent seeds consist of a mucilaginous and farinaceous substance, combined 

 with a bland fixed oil, and a volatile or essential one, of great pungency, in 

 which sulphur is said by Midler to exist to the amount of about thirty per 

 cent. The acridity of this latter oil is increased if the seeds are kept some 

 time after they are gathered, or it is at once developed by steeping the seeds 

 in vinegar. The seeds when prepared for use are first dried in a kiln, and 

 ground to powder ; when, by some delicate process, the black husks are 

 removed. In France this process is either ill understood, or the husks are 

 retained because they possess greater pungency than the inner portion of the 

 seed ; the French mustard is consequently stronger than ours, but not of so 

 good a colour. Our English word " mustard," as well as the moutarde of the 

 French, is derived from mushtm ardens, " hot must ;" the sweet must of new 

 wine having been an old ingredient of the condiment, as used in France. In 

 our country it is often prepared for the table l)y the admixture of the juice 

 of horse-radish, or other pungent substances, as well as with milk ; Ijut when 

 this is used, the preparation is only fit for immediate use. 



The seeds of both this and the White Mustard have been used medi- 

 cinally ; and, like many other remedies whose properties are apparent, they 

 have often been taken in total ignorance of the disease for which they were 

 applied ; and though in many cases unobjectionable, or even useful, have in 

 some produced evil consequences. Professor Wheeler has recorded in the 

 Chelsea Catalogue instances in which the use of mustard-seed proved fataL 



