WYCOMBE WILD FILOWERS. 13 
donna appears most to advantage, when each blossom is succeeded 
by a lustrous purplish-black berry as large as a cherry, the juice 
of which gives a brilliant and permanent purple dye to paper; 
and the slender boughs bend to the earth with their beautiful but 
deadly freight. Each berry contains a great number of small 
black seeds, and is seated on the five-pointed calyx, which re- 
mains after the corolla has fallen off. "We may here remark that 
the corolla is that part of the blossom which is usually coloured, 
and which is commonly called the flower; the calyx is the cup in 
which the corolla is placed, and is wswally green. In some plants, 
as in the Buttercup, the calyx falls off as the corolla expands: but 
in others, as in our Deadly Nightshade, it is persistent, remaining 
even when the fruit is matured. 
Many suppose that itis to the Belladonna that Shakespeare 
alludes, when he says, 
‘‘ Have we eaten of the insane root 
That takes the reason prisoner?”’ * 
and this supposition is borne out by the old authors, who tell us 
that ‘this kind of Nightshade troubleth the minde, bringeth mad- 
nesse if a few of the berries be inwardly taken, but if moe be given 
they also kill and bring present death.” Nevertheless, when 
judiciously employed, Belladonna is a valuable remedy in many 
diseases, especially in such as affect the eye. 
The Deadly Nightshade is a rare plant of chalky districts, and 
is also found among ruins: in some places itis very abundant, as 
about the ruins of Furness Abbey, whence that neighbourhood is 
said by Withering to have obtained the name of “ Vale of Night- 
shade.” Our own district produces it in several localities: it 
grows in profusion among the undergrowth in the little wooded 
patch which faces the middle lodge in Wycombe Park, and was 
formerly found on Keep Hill, as well as in a small wood above 
Hedge Mill, near Loudwater. A fine specimen grows in the 
Hughenden woods; and in the woodlands near Marlow and 
Medmenham itis of frequent occurrence, being especially luxuri- 
ant in some parts of Bisham Wood, Berks. The blossoms expand 
in June and July, and the berries are in perfection during Sep- 
tember and October. 
