SEMEN SINAPIS NIGR^. 65 



B. alba Hook. f. et Th., and to a South European species, Diplotaxis 

 erucoides DC. {Siiuvpis erucoides L.). The use of mustard seems up to 

 this period to have been more medicinal than dietetic. But from an 

 edict of Diocletian, A.D. 301 ^ in which it is mentioned along with 

 alimentary substances, we must suppose it was then regarded as a con- 

 diment at least in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire. 



In Europe during the middle ages mustard was a valued accom- 

 paniment to food, especially to the salted meat which constituted a large 

 portion of the diet of our ancestors during the winter.- In the Welsh 

 " Meddygon Myddvai," of the 13th century, a paragraph is devoted to 

 the "Virtues of Mustard." In household accounts of the 13th and 

 14th centuries, mustard under the name of Senapium is of constant 

 occurrence. 



Mustard was then cultivated in England, but not as it would seem 

 very extensively. The price of the seed between A.D. 1285 and 1395 

 varied from Is. 3(Z. to 6s. 8c?. per quarter, but in 1347 and 1376 it was 

 as high as 15s. and 168.* In the accounts of the abbey of St. Germain - 

 des-Pres in Paris, commencing A.D. 800, mustard is specifically men- 

 tioned as a regular part of the revenue of the convent lands.^ 



The essential oil of mustard was, apparentlj^ noticed about the year 

 1660 by Nicolas Le Febvre (see in the article Had. Inulae), more dis- 

 tinctly in 1732 by Boerhaave. Its acridity and high specific gravity 

 were pointed out by Murray.' Thibierge in 1819 observed that sulphur 

 was one of the constituents of the oil, and Guibourt'^ stated that it is 

 not pre-existing in the seed. 



Production — Mustard is grown in England only on the richest 

 alluvial soils, and chiefly in the counties of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. 

 Very good seed is produced in Holland. 



Description — The pod oi Brassica nigra is smooth, erect, and closely 

 pressed against the axis of the long slender raceme. It has a strong 

 nerve on each of its two valves and contains in each cell from 4 to 6 

 spherical or slightly oval seeds. The seeds are about o^ of an inch in 

 diameter and J^y of a grain in weight ; they are of a dark reddish-brown. 

 The surface is reticulated with minute pits, and often more or less 

 covered with a whitish pellicle which gives to some seeds a grey colour.' 

 The testa which is thin, brittle and translucent encloses an exalbumi- 

 nous embryo having two short cotyledons folded together longitudinally 

 and forming a sort of trough in which the radicle lies bent up. The 

 embryo thus coiled into a ball completely fills the testa; the outer 

 cotyledon is thicker than the inner, which viewed in transverse section 

 seems to hold the radicle as a pair of forceps. The seeds when pul- 



1 Mommsenm5enc7t<erf«rsocA«. Gesellsch. * Gu^rard, Polyptique de VAhhi Irminon, 

 der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, 1851. 1 — 80. Paris, i. (1844) 715. 



2 Enclosed pasture land in England was ' Apparatus medicaminum, ii. (1794) 399. 

 rare, and there was but scanty provision ^ Journ. de Pharm. x\'ii. (1831) 360. 



for preserving stock through the winter, "The grey colour of the seed, which is 



root crops being unknown. Hence in attributed to rain during the ripening, ia 



November there was a general slaughtering very detrimental to its value. The great 



of sheep and oxen, the flesh of which was aim of the grower is to produce seed of a 



salted for winter use.— See also Pharm. bright reddish brown, with no grey seed 



Journ. viii. (1876, April 27) 852. intermixed. 



' Rogers, Hist, of Agriculture and Prices 

 in England, i. (1866) 223. 



