ficient tilth for the reception of any other crop. Its leaves afford a grateful food to sheep, and other cattle: the seed yields from every cwt. 33 or 36lbs. of a sweet, mild oil.—Bees are remarkably attached to the flowers.—This plant is likewise raised by gardeners in the winter, and early in the spring, with a view to supply the table with salad.
3. The nigra, or Common Mustard, growing in corn-fields, on ditch-banks, and road-sides; flowering in the month of June.—The sauce, called mustard, and in daily use at our tables, is prepared from the seeds of this species, obtained by culture, and reduced to powder. They likewise afford a considerable quantity of expressed oil, which partakes but little of the acrimony of the plant.—When unbruised, they impart a very weak flavour to boiling water; but, in a pulverized state, they coagulate milk, and strongly impregnate both fluids.—If a watery infusion be taken in a considerable quantity, it operates as an emetic; but, in the proportion of a table-spoonful or two, it is a gentle laxative; in this form, it has proved of service in cases of asthma, chronic rheumatism, and palsy.—Cataplasms, prepared with crumb of bread, vinegar, and pulverized mustard-seed, are excellent stimulants, when applied to benumbed or paralytic limbs; to parts affected with fixed rheumatic pains, and to the soles of the feet, in fevers that require such treatment.—In short, mustard acts powerfully upon the nervous system, without exciting a high degree of heat: by its acrimony and pungency, it stimulates the solids, and attenuates viscid juices; so that it is deservedly recommended for exciting appetite, assisting digestion, and promoting the fluid secretions, being greatly preferable to the generality of acrid plants of the antiscorbutic class.
In 1798, a patent was granted to Mr. Robert Johnston, for his contrivance of a medicine, which he calls Improved Essence of Mustard. The particulars of this patent are inserted in the 9th vol. of the Repertory of Arts, &c.
MUSTARD, the HEDGE, or Erysimum, L. a genus of plants, comprising ten species, four of which are natives of Britain.
1. The officinale, Common Hedge-mustard; Worm-seed; Bank-cresses; or Scrambling-rocket: it grows under walls and hedges, on road-sides, and among rubbish; where it flowers in the months of May and June.—This species possesses a warm and acrid flavour; and, when cultivated, is used as an early pot-herb. Its seeds, taken internally, promote expectoration, the discharge of urine, and other fluid secretions. The juice has been employed with unparalleled success in ulcers of the throat, and for removing hoarseness, occasioned by loud speaking.—Sheep and goats relish this species; but cows, horses, and swine refuse it.
2. The Barbarea, Winter-cresses; Winter-rocket; or Rocket-wormseed; which grows on walls, in watery places, on banks of running streams, and is sometimes found in cultivated fields: it flowers from May to October.—In Sweden, the common people use the leaves of this herb in early salads in the spring, and late in the autumn: they also boil them as kale.—It is sown in Britain, to obtain spring-salad, and
