186 
THE MUSTARD TREE. 
to three feet. It is a native of Madeira, and is not, that we are aware of, found 
either in a wild or cultivated form in Syria or any of the neighbouring countries. It 
produces yellow flowers, and was introduced in 1777. 
Of these four species of Sinapis, the three first are annuals, and with the 
exception of the Egyptian kind (S. turgida) are of low growth, and spread very little ; 
and although the latter under peculiarly favourable circumstances may attain a 
considerable size, yet its ordinary height being only about three feet, it would 
scarcely appear a suitable plant to select as an illustration of the subject, into which 
the Mustard tree is introduced in the sacred writings. 
The fourth species (S. fruticosa) possesses more of the characters of the Eastern 
Mustard tree than any of the others, but not being a native of Syria, or any of the 
surrounding countries, and our ignorance as to whether it was ever known to the 
ancients, probabilities are against its being the plant intended, and also from its low 
growth it could scarcely be viewed in the light of a tree, but rather as a garden herb. 
In the sacred writings the Mustard tree is several times mentioned. In Matthew 
xiii. , v. 31, 32, the seeds are described as very small (" the least of all seeds "), and 
the plant, when matured, to be the greatest among herbs, and becoming a tree, so 
that the fowls of the air may come and lodge in the branches ; in Mark iv., v. 32, 
it is said to become the largest of all garden herbs, and to form great branches ; and 
in Luke xiii., v. 19, it is said to increase and grow up to a tree. From these several 
descriptions, it will be apparent that none of the foregoing species of Sinapis can 
be the true Mustard of the ancients. 
The great Linnaeus believed that it was a species of Phytolacca, which he named 
asiatica ; little, however, is known of this species ; it may possibly be identical with 
either Phytolacca abyssinica or Phytolacca dodecandra. The first of these forms 
an evergreen shrub, from six to eight feet high, and spreading in proportion. The 
leaves are oblong-lanceolate, and the flowers are produced in semipendent racemes, 
from the axils of the leaves. The sepals are five, and the fruit is a ten-seeded 
berry. It was introduced in 1775. 
The Phytolacca dodecandka is an herbaceous species, which grows to six or 
eight feet high. The leaves are ovate-oblong, with a recurved point, and the flowers 
are red and produced in axillary racemes. A gentleman of the name of Frost has 
considered this species to be the true Mustard tree. 
Phytolaccads are nearly related to, and were formerly associated with Chenopods 
(Chenopodiacece), but at present they are separated into nine genera, and constitute 
a natural order called Phytolaccacece. They are all more or less acrid, but in some 
this property is considerable ; heat, however, will dissipate the greater part of it, and 
hence the young shoots and leaves of P. decandra are boiled and eaten, the former 
like asparagus, the latter like spinach. A rich scarlet colouring matter is also 
obtained from the berries. 
During the travels of Captains Irby and Mangles, and also of Mr. Banks, in 
Egypt and Syria, they observed a tree, which, from its Arab name, and the uses 
