58 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



Franciscans' kitchen-gardens for its seeds. If so, 

 it doubtless speedily escaped into the open, for there 

 is a tradition that at the season of its vernal blos- 

 soming the old camino real which linked the Mis- 

 sions together, became every year like a golden 

 chain from the mustard, which had sprung up in 

 the Padres' footsteps. The plant is one of two or 

 three whose seeds nowadays furnish the mustard of 

 commerce. 



"The seed is hotter than white mustard," said 

 one of my California acquaintances, "it's red hot, 

 and tons of it have been shipped out of the State; 

 yet there 's enough of it goes to waste every year in 

 one county, I guess, to season the ham sandwiches 

 of the world." 



It frequently overtops the head of people on 

 horseback, and a man afoot might lose himself in a 

 thicket of it almost as completely as in a tropical 

 jungle. There is good reason to believe that this 

 vigorous plant is one with the New Testament mus- 

 tard which from the smallest of seeds grew into a 

 tree in which the fowls of the air found lodging, as 

 myriads of them do in California to-day ; for the self- 

 same species has been cultivated for centuries in 

 Syria where it reaches the height sometimes of fif- 

 teen feet. To the lover of delicate floral beauty for 

 its own sake, the mustard makes a strong appeal, 



