CHAELOCK. 



Sinapis arvensis, Nat. Ord., Cruciferee. 



ARTON, in one of his poems, 

 on the Spring, has the fol- 

 lowing lines : 

 " O'er the field of waving broom, 

 JSlowly shoots the golden bloom ; " 



and these lines naturally occur 

 to us when the charlock comes 

 into our thoughts. It is one 

 of the most troublesome weeds 

 with which the farmer has to 

 contend, and as we watch the 

 gieeii cornfields during June slight 

 indications of charlock are first seen, 

 and day by day, as more blossoms 

 expand, the streak of yellow becomes 

 larger and more pronounced, until some- 

 times the interloper appears at the dis- 

 tance to be some legitimate field-crop, so largely does 

 it take possession of the ground, while the whole 

 expanse glows with its golden yellow. There are three 

 plants that are most especially found in cornfields, that 

 are all fairly common, and that are apt to be indis- 

 criminately called charlock ; these are the present plant, the 

 Sinapis alba, and the llaplianus rtifihanislri/ni ; the first and 



