12 WYCOMBE WILD FLOWERS. 
irrelevant, leaving, for the present, conjectures (in which we 
confess we feel great interest) as to why the ‘‘meanes” which 
were blessed to the recovery of the third child, were not at least 
tried upon the other two. 
Our readers’ curiosity must be—or at any rate ought to be—by 
this time excited as to the name of the plant, the ‘‘ pleasant and 
beautiful fruit’ of which brought such fatal consequences to the 
youthful Wisbichians. Quaint old Gerarde, who is our authority 
for the above statement, tells us that it was Dwale, or Drapiy 
NIGHTSHADE, and advises his readers to banish it from their 
gardens, or from any place near their houses, ‘‘ being a plant so 
furious and deadly.” It belongs to the order Soranacem—the 
Nightshade Family, to the few British representatives of which 
—all of them wild flowers of the Wycombe district—we would 
now direct attention. 
The Deadly Nightshade rejoices in the Latin name of Atropa 
Belladonna, but is perhaps usually known by that of Belladonna 
only, which we should anglicise as “ Beautiful Lady;” given to 
it from the fact that it is used as a cosmetic by Italian dames. 
The name Atropa refers very strongly to the fatal properties of 
the plant, Atropos being the mystic Fate whose office it was to sever 
the thread of life. Its English names also point to the poisonous 
nature of this species: they are—Deadly, or Sleepy, Night- 
shade; Dwale—a word which is a corruption of the French word 
deuil, mourning—to which is frequently added the prefix Deadly; 
Hogsbean—a name which is also applied to the Henbane;—and 
Dwayberries. 
The Deadly Nightshade is a very large and handsome plant, 
from three to eight feet high, and very shrubby; the stems are 
often thicker than an ordinary walking-stick; the leaves are 
large and smooth, of a somewhat dark green, egg-shaped, pointed, 
and uncut. ‘The flowers are also somewhat handsome, the 
calyces being green, and the corollas lurid purple; the latter are 
very numerous, growing singly, or occasionally in pairs, upon 
rather long stalks; and are pendulous, bell-shaped, and mono- 
petalous, t.e., one-petalled, all in one piece; each containing five 
white stamens, and one pistil. But it is in fruit that our Bella- 
