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 
gan 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 
Fic. 135. — Hedge Mustard during the long season of seed de- . 
(Sisymbrium officinale). X%. velopment. 
TUMBLING MUSTARD 
Sis§mbrium 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 
