HARPER'S GUIDE TO WILD FLOWERS 



vided. Pods, h inch long, filled with dark-colored, pungent seeds. 

 Plant, 3 to 6 feet high, much branched. 



Table mustard is made from the seeds of white and black 

 mustard. When powdered and mixed with warm water the 

 most pungent oil known is generated, causing strangulation 

 if breathed. In England mustard is sown for forage. It is 

 cut before the seeds are ripe and fed to cattle. The oil of 

 mustard is used in making soap. Sinapis (common mustard) 

 was known to the Greeks and Romans 300 years before 

 Christ. The mustard referred to in Scripture is thought to 

 be a small tree allied to the olive, whose fruit tastes like 

 mustard-seed. Cabbage and turnip belong to this genus. 



Hedge Mustard 



Sisymbrium officinale. — Family, Mustard. Color, pale yellow. 

 Flowers, small, in close spikes, the lower forming pods, while the 

 upper are still in bud. Leaves, deeply cut into narrow segments, the 

 middle one the largest , the upper ones sessile, the lower on short pet- 

 ioles. The incised parts often turn backward. Pods, long, pointed, 

 firm and thick, closely lying against the stem. May to November. 



Naturalized from Europe, used for the table. In waste 

 places, often a weed, everywhere except far North. 2 to 3 

 feet high. 



Tumble Mustard 



S. altissimum. — Color, pale yellow. A tall species, 2 to 4 feet, 

 with erect, rather stout stem. Flowers, small, few, in terminal 

 racemes. Pods, very long, standing out from the stem, about 

 the size of the peduncles, not numerous. Leaves, the lower much 

 and deeply incised, with a large, middle lobe. Some of the seg- 

 ments are eared. Upper leaves reduced to very small, thin, 

 linear bracts. Summer. 



Roadsides and waste places. A recent immigrant, it is 

 becoming a troublesome weed. 



Wormseed Mustard. Treacle Mustard 

 Erysimum cheiranthoides (Name means " blister drawing.") 

 — Family, Mustard. Color, yellow. Flowers, small, on slender, 

 diverging stalks. Pods, short. Leaves, entire, lance-shaped, 1 to 

 4 inches long, the upper sessile, the lower tapering into a short 

 petiole. Minute, split hairs cover the plant, which grows 2 feet 

 high or less. June to August. 



Along river-banks and in wet fields, or in more open 

 places, in poor soil. 



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