XCV. — THE CHARLOCK. 
Sinapis arvensis Linne. 
N O artist is as daring as Nature in the collocation of colours. Next to a field 
scarlet with Poppies may be one uniformly yellow with Charlock. A modern 
West-Country dialect rhyme runs : — 
“ The kerlock plant is a zite to zee, 
As it shines in the yields like gowld ; 
But all y’ant gowld that glitters vree, 
I was once by my veather towld ; 
and every farmer knows that this troublesome weed is golden only in appearance. 
It is a wild Mustard, and the genus Sinapis of Linn6, under which we still 
prefer to place the Mustards, differs but by a single character from the Cabbages, 
i.e. the genus Brassica. While the Cabbages have erect sepals, like those of a 
Wallflower, the Mustards have them in an ascending or half-spreading position. 
Small, however, as this distinction seems, it is, we think, quite sufficient — seeing 
that it is very constant — in a Family, such as the Crucifera^ in which the distinctive 
characters of Tribes and genera are so very slight. If the Mustards be reduced to a 
sub-genus or Section of Brassica, the Charlock would be the Brassica Sinapistrum of 
Boissier, but would bear the earlier name of B. Sinapis Visiani. 
As we have already pointed out, the extremely “ natural ” character of the 
Family Crucifers has compelled us to have recourse to apparently slight and by no 
means conspicuous characters for the discrimination of the Tribes and genera into 
which the Family is divided. Though Prantl, one of the latest authorities, bases his 
primary division of the Family upon the hairs on the leaf being simple or branched, 
whilst De Candolle employed the folding of the cotyledons in the seed with 
reference to the radicle as the primary character, a very convenient, and apparently 
not unnatural, system is based primarily upon the length and partitions of the fruits. 
According to this, there are five primary subdivisions of the Family which we 
may term Sub-Families. These are the Siliquos^, with long pods or siliquas, 
dehiscing throughout their length, with partitions across the broader diameter of 
their transverse section ; Latisepta, with short pods or silicles (silicula), dehiscing 
throughout their length and with the septum across the broader diameter ; Angustiseptte, 
with silicles with septa across their narrower diameter ; lSucamentace<£, with indehiscent, 
one-seeded pods ; and Lomentaccie, with pods which divide transversely into one- 
seeded portions. These Sub-Families are subdivided, by the number of rows of 
their seeds and the characters of the cotyledons and radicle already alluded to, into 
Tribes, of which there are ten or eleven among British Crucifers. 
In every system of classification, however, the Cabbages, Mustards, and Wall 
Mustards (Diplotaxis) must come near together. They constitute the Tribe 
Brassice^e, in the Sub-Family Siliquoste, characterised collectively by having yellow 
