WILD FLOWERS yellow and orange 



relief of every pain is only too well known in every 

 family. The oil of Mustard, made from the seeds, 

 is intensely pungent, and is used for making liniments 

 and soap. When used as fodder, the plant is harvested 

 before the seeds mature. The Black Mustard is com- 

 mon throughout our country from June to November, 

 in fields, roadsides, and waste places. Its presence 

 is a familiar one about abandoned farm buildings 

 and weed-grown foundations, marking the ravages 

 and desolation caused by fire and decay. It is con- 

 spicuously at home in the vicinity of public ash dumps 

 and in neglected gardens. While it is extensively 

 cultivated in Europe, it is looked upon by farmers in 

 this country as a most prolific and troublesome pest 

 It grows erect from two to seven feet high, and branches 

 widely. The lower leaves are slender-stemmed and 

 deeply cut into two or three pairs of irregular parts, 

 and balanced on the end with a single large lobe. 

 The edges are variously toothed. The shorter-stemmed 

 upper leaves are lance-shaped, and often smooth- 

 edged. The leaves are loose-textured, and on the 

 underside they are hairy. They are set on the stalk 

 at the base of the branches. The flower has four 

 bright yellow petals, arranged like an oblong cross — 

 the cross sign "X" of multiplication, which is one of 

 the chief characteristics of all of the flowers of the 

 Mustard family, and which the Latin name, Cruci^ 

 ferae, signifies. The flowers are less than half an inch 

 broad. The delicate, rounded petals are narrowed at 

 the base, and are spread toward the apex. The greenish 



131 



