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An upland cornfield in June with Charlock between the short corn-plants is a beautiful sight for the rambler, but the farmer may be pardoned if he fails to take the aesthetic view; for all that vegetable gold must be laboriously hand-picked, or "cleaned," as he would probably express it. Charlock is a weed that keeps close to the farmer; that likes the comparatively light and dry soil of the ploughed field. It is a hairy annual belonging to the cabbage tribe, which is a branch of the Cruciferæ or Cross-worts, so-called from the four petals being arranged cross-wise. In this and the two following species the petals are bright yellow. To make the flower symmetrical there should be four or eight stamens; there are six, and it has been suggested that there were eight, but two have been suppressed. The fruit is an angular pod, with a straight beak, not persistent, and two hairy valves, but containing only one row of dark-brown seeds. Flowers from May to August.

There are many species of Brassica, two of which may be confounded with B. sinapis; they are:&mdash;