dly that it has been said a salad of this may be
grown while the joint of meat is being roasted for dinner. Seeds of
the white Mustard have been employed medicinally from early
times. [381] Hippocrates advised their use both internally, and as a
counter-irritating poultice made with vinegar. When swallowed
whole in teaspoonful doses three or four times a day, they exercise a
laxative effect mechanically, and are voided without undergoing any
perceptible change, only the outer skin being a little softened and
mucilaginous. An infusion of the seed taken medicinally will relieve
chronic bronchitis, and confirmed rheumatism: also for a relaxed
sore throat a gargle of Mustard seed tea will be found of service.

A French expression for trifling one's time away is _s'amuser a la
moutarde_. The essential oil is an admirable deodorant and
disinfectant, especially on an emergency.

But the "grain of Mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds" (_Mark
_iv., 31), "which when it is grown up is the greatest among herbs,"
was a tree of the East, very different from our Mustard, and bearing
branches of real wood.

The Hedge Mustard (_Sisymbrium_, or _Erisymum_) grows by our
roadsides, and on waste grounds, where it seems to possess a
peculiar aptitude for collecting and retaining dust. The pods are
downy, close pressed to the stem, and the leaves hairy with their
points turned backwards. It is named by the French "St. Barbara's
Hedge Mustard," and the Singer's Plant, "_herbe au chantre_," or
"_herbe au chanteur_." Up to the time of Louis XIV, it was
considered an infallible remedy for loss of the voice. Racine writing
to Boileau recommended the syrup of _Erysimum_ to him when
visiting the waters of Bourbonne in order to be cured of
voicelessness. "Si les eaux de Bourbonne ne vous guerissent pas de
votre extinction de voix, le sirop d'Erysimum vous guerirait
infalliblement. Ne l'oubliez pas, et a l'occasion vingt grammes par
litre d'eau en tisane [382] matin et soir." It used to be called Flix,
or Flux weed from being given with benefit in dysentery, a disease
formerly known as the Flix. This herb has been commended for
chronic coughs and hoarseness, using the juice mixed with an equal
quantity of honey, or sugar. It has been designated "the most
excellent of all remedies for diseases of the throat, especially in
ulcerated sore throats, which it will serve to cure when all the advice
of physicians and surgeons has proved ineffectual." A