HEDGE MUSTARD. 



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confounded. The plant belongs to the class and order 

 " Tetradynamia siliquosa " of Linneus, and the natural order 

 Cruciferse" of Jussieu. 



Generic character. — Calyx : perianth four-leaved. Leaf- 

 lets ovate, oblong, parallel, converging, coloured, deciduous. 

 Corolla : four-petalled, cruciform ; petals oblong, flat, ex- 

 tremely obtuse at the tip ; claws, length of the calyx, 

 upright ; nectariferous gland, double, within the shorter 

 filament. Stamina : filaments six, length of the calyx, of 

 these the two opposite shorter ; anthers simple. Pistil : 

 germ linear, four-cornered, length of the stamens ; style 

 very short ; stigma headed, permanent, small. Perianth : 

 silique long, linear, strict, exactly four-cornered, two-valved, 

 two-celled. Seeds very many, small, roundish. 



Essential character. — Silique colunnar, with four equal 

 sides. Calyx closed. 



The Erysimum barbarea," or the winter cr^ss or hedge 

 mustard, has the leaves lyrate, the outmost lobe roundish. 

 Root perennial. Stem a foot or eighteen inches high, smooth, 

 round, deeply furrowed, much-branched. Leaves smooth, 

 dark green, having two or three pairs of roundish lobes, con- 

 nected to a broad foliaceous rib, the extreme lobe much the 

 largest, and either of an oval or blunt rhomboidal figure, 

 shghtly indented on the edges, but they vary much in form. 

 Flowers in racemes or thick spikes at the ends of the stem and 

 branches ; calyx green ; petals yellow, much longer than the 

 calyx. Seeds roughish, finely dotted and reticulated, twenty 

 in number, ten in each cell. 



This plant flowers in May to July. It grows in watery 

 places, on banks of ditches and streams, on walls, and in cul- 

 tivated fields. The leaves are used as salads, and also boiled 

 as " kale." The taste is mostly bitter and unpleasant, and 

 the whole plant has a nauseous, bitter, slimy flavour. The 

 dark shining broad leaves distinguish it from the "mustards," 

 with which it is frequently confounded ; they grow intermixed, 

 the colour of the flowers is similar, and the unaccustomed 

 eye mistakes the one for the other. The lower leaves are 

 lyrate, with the terminal lobe rounded ; upper ones obovate, 



