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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



and Phocion were all condemned to drink it. The 

 darnel [Lolium tenmJenticm) is a large grass, flowering 

 in July, which grows among barley and wheat, 

 possessed of poisonous properties : it is supposed to 

 be the tares referred to in the parable. The monks- 

 hood {Aconitum napellus) is a very poisonous plant, 

 even the odour of its leaves and blossoms having an 

 injurious effect on some people : its old name of 

 wolfsbane was given to the plant, because hunters 

 dipped their arrows in its juice to make them more 

 deadly. The upas-tree of Java has a great notoriety 

 for the terrible effects it is supposed to have in causing 

 the death of any one who lies down under its shelter, 

 and its milky gum is also used by the natives for 

 their arrows. 



We will now turn to some plants which show by 

 their names a connection with certain mythical 

 personages. It is probable their grace and beauty 

 gave rise to the invention of legends to account for 

 their existence; as the olive-tree, being so useful, was 

 attributed to Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, 

 having caused it to spring from the ground as her 

 highest achievement. The narcissus was called 

 after a Greek youth of that name, who was so 

 delighted with his own beauty that he gave his 

 whole attention to watching his reflection in the 

 •water,unti], being wasted to a shadow, he died. When 

 the nymphs went to bury him, they found nothing 

 but the flower which now bears his name, and is 

 considered an emblem of vanity and self-love, 

 because it prefers to grow near waters, where its 

 image is reflected, which must have given rise to 

 the fable. Of the hyacinths, which belong to the 

 Asphodeliacese, the flowers of Paradise, there is 

 one kind,8 Hyacintlms poeticus, that has upon its 

 leaves two marks, a little like the Greek word for 

 woe, or alas, and the story to account for these signs 

 and to which the flower owes its name, is, that a 

 youth so called was accidentally killed by Apollo, 

 whose grief at his loss was so great that, failing to 

 restore him to life, he caused this lovely plant to 

 spring from his blood, and marked upon it the 

 expression of his sorrow : our own wild hyacinth, not 

 having these marks upon it, is termed "noti-scriptus" 

 not written, a puzzling name without this expla- 

 nation. The name Iris is given to the group of 

 plants so called, after the nymph Iris, the imperso- 

 nation of the rainbow, on account of the exquisite 

 blending and variety of their colours. The name 

 A-donis was given to the genus which contains the 

 pheasant's-eye, our brightest crimson wild flower, 

 from the youth Adonis, who was slain by a wild 

 boar, and whose blood is said to have coloured its 

 petals. I Similar traditions make several flowers, 

 among others the forget-me-not on Waterloo, bear 

 red blossoms when they grow on battle-fields. The 

 weeping willow {Salix Bahylonicd) preserves in its 

 name the memory of the children of Israel in cap- 

 tivity. ^Thedeadly nightshade {Atropa belladonna), 



most fatal of poisonous plants, derives its name of 

 Atropa from the Fate whose office it was to cut the 

 thread of life with her shears ; the second name. 

 Belladonna, refers to an ancient belief that the 

 nightshade is the form of a fatal enchantress, luring 

 to destruction by her beauty. The famous apples 

 of Sodom, lovely to look at but turning to dust 

 on the lips, have been identified as of the same 

 family, Solanacese, to which the potato also belongs. 

 An old Teutonic tradition connected the potato 

 with the stars, and said that it must not be planted 

 daring the ascendancy of Pisces, lest it be watery, 

 but in that of Gemini, that it may be full. These, 

 with a more recent belief that it must be put in the 

 ground on Maundy-Thursday, with many other like 

 superstitions linking plants, to particular days, of 

 course arise from the time of year when such days 

 fall being really about the time for sowing or planting. 

 The Daphne (laurel) was once a nymph, who was 

 metamorphosed, they say, into this bush by the 

 gods, to save her from Apollo, when she was fleeing 

 from him : perhaps this myth arose ia connection 

 with the plant being evergreen, flourishing in 

 winter, independently, as it were, of the sun. The 

 genus Mercurialis iis called almost throughout 

 Europe by some word synonymous with Mercury, 

 from the notion that its supposed medicinal virtues 

 were revealed to the world by him, in his character 

 of Hermes, the physician. The dog's mercury is a 

 strong poison, but decoctions of it have been used 

 against ague ; the annual mercury, which is less 

 poisonous and less common, may be safely eaten 

 when cooked, the water in which it is boiled retain- 

 ing its poisonous qualities, as is often the case. The 

 briar, so full of thorns, is called after the many- 

 handed giant Briareus. The genus of plants Lysi- 

 machia, to which the little yellow-flowered loose- 

 strife belongs, is called after Lysimachus, a king of 

 Sicily, because he first used the plant, to put upon 

 the yokes of restive oxen, from an absurd notion 

 that it would render them submissive. The 

 enchanter's nightshade, growing in dark and damp 

 places, the resort of magicians, receives the name of 

 Circaja, from the enchantress Circe. There are 

 two plants for whose names we might fancy a 

 traditionary origin, that admit of a much more 

 simple explanation, — the herb Paris, and the 

 Jerusalem artichoke. The former of these is so 

 called from par, equal, on account of its extreme 

 regularity : its flower consists of a calyx with four 

 green leaflets, a corolla with four green petals; and 

 the fruit contains four cells, while the four leaves 

 grow round the stem and form a cross : this peculiar 

 arrangement of the leaves acquired for the herb 

 Paris the name of lover's knot. The Jerusalem 

 artichoke has no connection with the famous city, 

 but its appellation is a corruption of the Italian 

 girar sole, going round with the sun, as this 

 vegetable belongs to the genus Helianthus, so called 



