GAELIC-MUSTARD. 143 



Another common name for the sauce-alone or the 

 garlic-mustard is the Jack-by-the-hedge ; and in some 

 old herbals it is the jies asiitinus or donkey's-foot, a 

 name bestowed on it from the shape of the leaf, but 

 which is by no means appropriate, and which probably 

 would never have been thought of had there not been 

 already a colt's-foot, a bird's-foot, and the like. The 

 plant has by some more recent authorities been classed in 

 the genus Krij^litnuti, and by others in Sixymlrrium. These 

 genera are closely allied botanically with that in which it 

 is now placed, and we cite them both, as very possibly our 

 readers who may desire to know more of the plant might 

 in some books find it under one beading, and in others 

 under another. 



The garlic-mustard appears to be sometimes an annual, 

 but it is more ordinarily biennial. The root is long, white, 

 tapering, forked, and furnished with numerous lateral 

 fibres. The stalk is upright, and from two to three feet 

 high, round, smooth, often purplish at the bottom, 

 branching at the top, but having as a whole a bold and 

 <?rect growth. The lateral branches are few in number, 

 arranged alternately, and partake of the general upright 

 character. In young plants there are often no lateral 

 shoots at all. All the leaves are stalked, the upper ones 

 being on short stems and the lower on much larger 

 ones ; all, too, are coai'sely toothed, but they vary some- 

 what in shape and size according to their position on the 

 plant. The upper leaves are small, and may be described as 

 of a pointed heart-like form ; while the lower are much 

 larger, and of a very much more rounded heart-like shape : all 

 are very deeply veined and somewhat wrinkled. The flowers 

 are white, growing in a cluster on the summit of the stems, 



