USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



and refreshing* beverage that is sudorific and has a 

 respectable phice among the rural remedies for feb- 

 rile conditions. Dr. Porcher quoted an old-time 

 South Carolinian as sajang that '^everybody cured 

 everything with dittany." 



The plants whose seeds, crushed to a flour and 

 sifted, constitute the mustard of commerce and mus- 

 tard plasters, are principally two, both of which, 

 though native to the Old World, are found abun- 

 dantly growing wild within our limits. The 

 more common is Black Mustard (Brassica nigra, 

 L.), occupying roadsides, fields and waste land on 

 both sides of our continent. It is a stout, much- 

 branched herb, Avith coarse, deeply lobed basal 

 leaves, and varies in height from two to twelve or 

 fifteen feet. Its most robust development in this 

 country is on the Pacific coast, where in the spring 

 its showy racemes of yellow flow^ers make solid sheets 

 of color on the plains and mesas, acre upon acre, to 

 the delight of tourists and the disgust of the land- 

 owners. In Syria it attains similar proportions and 

 is believed to be the mustard of the gospel parable. 

 The other Mustard plant is the closely related Bras- 

 sica alba, (L.) Boiss., popularly known as White 

 Mustard. It is rarely over two feet high, and is 

 distinguished from its black cousin by hairiness of 



194 



