6o THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



innocuous, such as the crab-apple, the wild pear, the 

 wild cherry, and the hips and haws of our hedgerows. 

 But, on the other hand, many British berries contain 

 deleterious properties. The black berries of the 

 spurge laurel — a plant frequently found in woods and 

 copses, of the privet, of the uncanny-looking herb- 

 paris, another denizen of our damp woods, of the 

 trailing garden nightshade, are all poisonous ; also 

 the scarlet berries of Daphne Mezereum, a rare 

 and handsome shrub still to be found growing wild 

 in certain Hampshire woods, of the arum or cuckoo- 

 pint, commonly known among children as "lords and 

 ladies," of the woody nightshade or bittersweet, and 

 of the common briony. The bright scarlet fruit of 

 the yew-tree contains a seed of dangerous and even 

 deadly quality. But of all our native berries the 

 large black ones of Atropa Belladonna, the deadly 

 nightshade, are the most fatal. Even half a berry 

 has been known to cause death within a few hours. 

 Other British plants possess acrid properties in the 

 juices of the stem and leaves ; while others again 

 contain a narcotic or an irritant poison in the roots 

 which has proved injurious to man. The poisonous 

 nature of many toadstools is well known, but the 

 Fungi form so entirely a distinct class of botany by 

 themselves that we do not propose to consider them 

 in the present paper. 



Now while some orders of plants are remarkable 

 for the large number of species they contain which 

 are useful and beneficial to man, other families have 

 a bad reputation, and most of the members must 

 be regarded with suspicion. Among the former the 

 Grass family is a conspicuous example. From remote 

 antiquity it has formed the principal basis of human 



