14 WYCOMBE WILD FLOWERS. 
The Henpane, or Hogsbean (Hyoscyamus niger), shares the 
poisonous properties of the Deadly Nightshade in a very marked 
manner: its English name would point to its ill effects upon 
birds, and nearly all living beings are susceptible of its influence, 
Shakespeare speaks of the ‘‘juice of cursed Hebenon,” (not un- 
frequently rendered “‘ Ebony !””) 
“Whose effect 
Holds such an enmity with blood of man 
That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through 
The natural gates and alleys of the body; 
And, with a sudden vigour, it doth posset 
And curd, like eager droppings into milk, 
The thin and wholesome blood.,’’ 
And Gerarde tells us that ‘the leaves, seed, and juyce taken in- 
wardly, cause an unquiet sleepe like unto the sleep of drunken- 
nesse, which continueth long, and is deadly to the party.” Like 
the Deadly Nightshade, however, Henbane is a valuable plant in 
medicine, when used with judgment and care. The following 
anecdote, for the accuracy of minute particulars of which we can- 
not vouch, but the main facts of which are to be found in various 
works, show the striking effects produced by Henbane when 
taken unintentionally in large quantities. 
The Abbot of Jenesaisquoi had presented to his brother of 
Rhinon a salad, which was all that a salad should be—hot and 
strong, and plenty of it; little wotting, good man! that the lay- 
brother to whom the gathering of the herbs was entrusted had, 
with a lamentable ignorance of Botany, substituted the root of 
the Henbane for that of the bitter, but innoxious Chicory. At 
collation, full justice was done to the salad: its flavour was 
piquant and savoury withal. The monks went to bed, and slept 
heavily: when Brother Ambrose rang the bell for Prime, they 
thought that the time for that office had come round apace. But 
worse took place when they had somehow or other assembled 
themselves in chapel: the prior and chanters vied with each other 
in singing ridiculous nonsense: Brother Cyprian was with 
difficulty restrained from violently assaulting Brother Patrick, 
while the characters in Brother Gregory’s book took unto them- 
selves the form of flies, and kept the worthy soul fully employed 
in attempting to brush them off. Brother Maurus was absent 
