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 them up and cut off the roots, beginning at one end of a row. From October to March the seeds should be sown thickly in shallow boxes and placed in a warm house or frame, with a temperature not below 65°.

Brassica nigra occurs as a weed in waste and cultivated ground throughout England and the south of Scotland, but is a doubtful native. It is a large branching annual 2 to 3 ft. high with stiff, rather rough, stem and branches, dark green leaves ranging from lyrate below to lanceolate above, short racemes of small bright yellow flowers one-third of an inch in diameter and narrow smooth pods. B. alba is more restricted to cultivated ground and has still less claim to be considered a native of Great Britain; it is distinguished from black mustard by its smaller size, larger flowers and seeds, and spreading rough hairy pods with a long curved beak.

 MUSTARD OILS, organic chemical compounds of general formula R·NCS. They may be prepared by the action of carbon bisulphide on primary amines in alcoholic or ethereal solution, the alkyl dithio-carbamic compounds formed being then precipitated with mercuric chloride, and the mercuric salts heated in aqueous solution, or the isocyanic esters may be heated with phosphorus pentasulphide (A. Michael and G. Palmer, Amer. Chem. Jour., 1884, 6, 257). They are colourless liquids with a very pungent irritating odour. They are readily oxidized, with production of the corresponding amine. Nascent hydrogen converts, them into the amine, with simultaneous formation of thio-formaldehyde, RNCS+4H＝R·NH2+HCSH. When heated with acids to 100° C, they decompose with formation of the amine and liberation of carbon bisulphide and sulphuretted hydrogen. They combine directly with alcohols, mercaptans, ammonia, amines and with aldehyde ammonia.

MUSTER (Mid. Eng. mostre, moustre, adapted from the similar O. Fr. forms; Lat. monstrare), originally an exhibition, show, review, an exhibition of strength, prowess or power. One of the meanings of this common Romanic Word, viz. pattern, sample, is only used in commercial usage in English, (e.g. in the cutlery trade), but it has passed into Teutonic languages, Ger. Muster, Du. mouster. The most general meaning is for the assembling of soldiers and sailors for inspection and review, and more particularly for the ascertainment and verification of the numbers on the roll. This use is seen in the Med. Lat. monstrum and monstratio, “recensio militum” (Du Cange, Gloss. s.v.). In the “enlistment” system of army organization during the 16th and 17th centuries, and later in certain special survivals, each regiment was “enlisted” by its colonel and reviewed by special officers, “muster-masters,” who vouched for the members on the pay roll of the regiment representing its actual strength. This was a necessary precaution in the days when it was in the power of the commander of a unit to fill the muster roll with the names of fictitious men, known in the military slang of France and England as passe-volants and “faggots” respectively. The chief officer at headquarters was the muster-master-general, later commissary general of musters. In the United States the term is still commonly used, and a soldier is “mustered out” when he is officially discharged from military service.

MUSURUS, MARCUS (c. 1474–1517), Greek scholar, was born at Rhithymna (Retimo) in Crete. At an early age he became a pupil of John Lascaris at Venice. In 1505 he was made professor of Greek at Padua, but when the university was closed in 1509 during the war of the league of Cambrai he