192 



CRUCIFERAE (MUSTARD FAMILY) 



Common everywhere ; a frequent tenant of vacant city lots ; it is 

 detested by the truck gardener because it harbors the club-root 

 fungus so injurious to cabbage and turnips, and may have fouled 

 the soil with the disease where those plants have never been cul- 

 tivated. 



Stems six inches to three feet tall, erect, slender, with branches 

 spread rigidly at wide angles. Leaves deeply cut and lobed, with 

 the lower segments usually turned 

 backward. Flowers yellow, about. an 

 eighth of an inch broad, in small, 

 flat clusters at summit of stem and 

 branches, above lengthening rows of 

 pods. These are small, round, 

 slightly hairy, pointed, about a half- 

 inch long, held erect and closely 

 pressed to the stalk. When old both 

 stems and pods often turn to a dirty 

 purple, making the plant look still 

 more weedy and unpleasant. (Fig. 

 135.) 



Means of control 



Prevent seed production. Destroy 

 autumn plants by hoe-cutting before 

 fruiting stalks appear. Hand-pulling 

 while in first bloom is a paying oper- 

 ation, as the plant is a gross feeder 

 FIG. 135. Hedge Mustard during the long season of seed de- 



(Sisymbrium officinale). X %. velopment. 



TUMBLING MUSTARD 

 Sisymbrium altissimum, L. 



Introduced. Annual or winter annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : June to July. 



Seed-time: First seed ripe in July. Plants dry and ready for 



tumbling in September. 

 Range : All states of the Middle West as far south as Missouri and 



