144 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



each being composed of four petals. The stamens are six 

 in number, and of the familiar type seen in all the cruci- 

 ferous plants. The pods that succeed the blossoms are a 

 very prominent and noticeable feature ; they vary in size 

 from the lowest scale of immature development to two 

 inches or more in length. These pods are stiff and cylin- 

 drical, and each contains numerous small brown shin i no- 

 seeds. The medieval herbalists were profuse in their 

 praises of the medicinal virtues of the garlic-mustard, 

 applying it internally as a sudorific, and externally as 

 an antiseptic, but this faith in its efficacv is, so far as 

 we are aware, now entirely a thing of the past. 



