COLE SEED. 173 
In light and otherwise barren lands mustard is culti- 
vated to great advantage. That which is produced in 
the county of Durham has much celebrity ; though the 
powdered seeds of charlock have, in many instances, 
been substituted, and sold in place of it. Mustard is in 
daily use at our tables, and the seeds > whole or bruised, 
are employed in pickles, and- for numerous other culinary 
purposes. These seeds yield, on pressure, a consider- 
able quantity of oil, which is soft and insipid to the taste, 
and partakes but little of the acrimony of the plant. 
Different preparations of mustard are sometimes used 
in medicine. The seeds, taken internally, are service- 
able in asthma, rheumatism, and palsy. Cataplasms of 
mustard are employed, on account of its stimulating 
properties, on benumbed or paralytic lirnbs. An infu- 
sion of the powdered seeds, taken in considerable quan- 
tity, operates as an emetic, and, in smaller quantity, is 
an useful aperient and diuretic. 
187. RAPE and COLE SEED (Brassica napus) are dif- 
ferent varieties of a plant iclth yellow cruciform flowers and 
spindle-shaped root, which grozos wild upon ditch banks, and 
amongst cor/z. 
This plant is distinguished from others of the same tribe by 
its roots being a regular continuation of the stem. 
In several parts of England rape and cole seed are 
sown intermixed, the plants being distinguishable in 
their growth by the cole exceeding the rape in height, 
being more soft and tender, and less branched and 
bushy. When sown separately the cole is usually, 
though not always, consumed as food for sheep and 
cattle ; and the rape is allowed to stand for seed. For 
the cultivation of rape the soil ought to be rich and 
deep. 
The harvest commences about the month of August; 
and as the seed, when in a state of maturity, is easily 
shed, it is customary, in some places, to thresh the 
plants on a large cloth in the field, llape-cloths are 
sometimes so large as to measure twenty yards square, 
and to weigh more than half a ton. The threshing is 
