HEDGE-MUSTARD. 103 



on a roadside rubbish-heap, is certainly ({ durtie." All the 

 leaves are coarse and rough to the touch, as they are on 

 each side clothed with small hairs ; they are arranged 

 in an alternate manner on the stem. The flowers of the 

 hedge-mustard are small and a rather pale yellow, clear 

 and pure in colour, but wanting the golden richness 

 and strength of the celandine or the loosestrife. They 

 blossom "by degrees, so that, continuing long in flower, 

 the stalks will have small round coddes at the bottome, 

 growing upright and close to the stalke, while the toppe 

 flowers yet show themselves," a feature that is clearly seen 

 in our figure, the central stem having at its summit a mass 

 of buds that will be a long time developing into flowers, 

 while the pods, or " coddes," are already beginning to 

 form at the lower part of the stem. The close way, too, 

 in which they stand by the stalk a point noticed by our 

 old writer is another very characteristic feature of the 

 growth of the plant. The cruciferous arrangement of the 

 four petals will be observed. As in the great majority of 

 the cruciferae, the stamens are six in number, two being 

 rather shorter than the others. The pods are small and 

 tapering, downy, and on very short stalks. When they 

 open for the dispersion of the ripened seeds, they do not 

 split all down the sides as in the more familiar example of 

 a pea- pod ; but the seeds are on a central membraneous 

 portion, and the outer flaps split away from this at each 

 side, beginning from the bottom, and are finally only 

 adherent at the summit. The seeds are of a dingy yellow 

 colour, " sharp and strong " to the taste. 



The generic name, Sisymlrium, was bestowed by the 

 ancients upon several plants, and as its literal meaning is 

 11 with food/' it has been conjectured by more modern 



