''DEFENCE, NOT DEFIANCE.' 123 



to the leaves this acrid secretion is may be seen in 

 any well-cropped field in the summer time. It is 

 yellow with abundance of Buttercup flowers, and 

 thousands of plants are distributed, growing rank 

 and healthy amid the well -grazed grass, but all un- 

 touched by cattle. Sheep will feed upon them when 

 young ; and the tougher and less dainty goat manages 

 to make a meal of the common Buttercup {Ranitn- 

 cuius acris) ; but neither horses nor cows will have 

 anything to do with it. There is a semi-humorous 

 aspect in the teleology of this poison secretion, for 

 tramps are in the habit of using the leaves of the 

 last-mentioned species of Buttercup, as well as those 

 of the Celery-leaved kind {^R. sceleratiis), to produce 

 blisters on their limbs, in order to excite compassion 

 in the hearts of the unitiated, and extract the coin 

 with which a well-to-do Briton likes to relieve him- 

 self from the distress of a pitiful sight ! 



Mr. Gosse describes the Dumb-cane {Caladiiuh 

 seguimini) as growing in rank abundance in certain 

 damp dells in Jamaica. It is a tall kind of Arum, 

 " so virulently acrid that the juice of any part 

 incautiously applied to the mouth causes the tongue 

 to swell so as to take away the power of speech, and 

 produces burning torments of long duration. It is 

 said to have been one of the modes of torture 

 employed by cruel masters in the dark days of 

 slavery." Our familiar and abundant English 

 species, Arum maculatuui, possesses nearly as intense 



