300 WILD FLOWERS Or 



(Atropa Belladonna), the fat dull henbane, the gor- 

 geous foxglove of life-depressing faculty, the rampant 

 nightshade, gifted with fatal energy in popular imagin- 

 ings, and one at least of an uncertain and treacherous 

 race, if free itself from the stain of blood-guiltiness ; 

 whilst, scattered over the thriftless soil, appear the 

 black mullein with its lurid leaves, the caustic and 

 grotesque arum, or wake-robin, the stinking black 

 horehound, and the drastic mandrake (Bryonia dioica), 

 which trails its gray-green cucumber-like shoots in 

 singular abundance over the naked and stony surface. 

 The smell on a hot summer's day from such a multi- 

 tude of ill-favoured weeds as these, and more which 

 might be mentioned, is far from refreshing, and quite 

 overpowers the fragrant honeysuckle, the only sweet 

 and innocent thing that lives to throw a charm over 

 what else is but dead, dreary., and baleful." Even 

 nature has desecrated spots, abandoned to grief, con- 

 tagion, and dejection. 



A curious parasitical plant may sometimes be no- 

 ticed in the summer in clover-fields, which merits 

 attention, though seldom numerous enough to be 

 considered an agricultural pest. This is the OrobancTie 

 minor, which, like all its congeners, appears at a little 

 distance like an old withered plant, though sufficiently 

 palpable and fleshy when examined closely. The 

 flower in perfection is of a pale primrose colour, 

 tinged and veined with purple, turning brown only in 

 decay ; the upper lip of the blossom as well as the 

 calyx, taper-pointed bractea, and upper part of the 

 zig-zag purple stem, is bearded with glands that exude 

 a bright amber-coloured clammy but scentless juice. 

 Similar glands cover the base of the stamens, while 



