566 pParit "bore, "begel^/, an^ l^i^rle/". 



smear their breasts with the juice of the leaves, in order to destroy 

 their new-born infant children. Acosta states that the Indian 

 dancing girls drug wine with the seeds of the Datura Stramonium, 

 He adds that whoever is so unfortunate as to partake of it is for 

 some time perfe(5tly unconscious. He often, however, speaks with 

 others, and gives answers as if he were in full possession of his 

 senses, although he has no control over his acflions, is perfecftly 

 ignorant of whom he is with, and loses all remembrance of what has 



taken places when he awakes. The Stramonium, or Thorn- 



Apple, is one of the plants commonly connecfled with witchcraft, 

 death, and horror. Harte, describing the plants growing about the 

 Palace of Death, says : — 



"Nor were the Nightshades wanting, nor the power 

 Of thorn'd Stramonium, nor the sickly flower 

 Of cloying Mandrakes, the deceitful root 

 Of the monk's fraudful cowl, and Plinian fruit" {^Amomum Plitiii]. 



THYME. — Among the Greeks, Thyme denoted the graceful 

 elegance of the Attic style, because it covered Mount Hymettus, 

 and gave to the honey made there the aromatic flavour of which 

 the ancients were so fond. " To smell of Thyme" was, therefore, a 

 commendation bestowed on those writers who had mastered the 

 Attic style. — — With the Greeks, also. Thyme was an emblem of 

 activity; and as this virtue is eminently associated with true 

 courage, the ladies of chivalrous times embroidered on the scarfs 

 which they presented to their knights, the figure of a bee hovering 

 about a spray of Th3/me, in order to inculcate the union of the 



amiable with the active. In olden times, it was believed that 



Thyme renewed the spirits of both man and beast; and the old 

 herbalists recommended it is a powerful aid in melancholic and 



splenetic diseases. Fairies and elves were reputed to be specially 



fond of Wild Thyme. Oberon exclaims with delight : — 



" I know a bank whereon the Wild Thyme blows, 

 Where Oxlips and the woody Violet grows, 

 Quite over-canopied with lush Woodbine. 

 With sweet Musk-Roses, and with Eglantine." 



The fairy king's musical hounds would willingly forsake the richest 

 blossoms of the garden in order to hunt for the golden dew in the 

 flowery tufts of Thyme. Of witches is is said, that when they 



" Won't do penance for their crime, 

 They bathed themselves in Oregane and Thyme." 



In the South of France, when a summons to attend a meeting of 

 the votaries of Marianne is sent, it is accompanied by tufts of 

 Wild Thyme, or Ferigoiile, that being the symbol of advanced 

 Republicanism. 



TOADSTOOL. — The name of Toadstool was originally 

 applied to all descriptions of unwholesome Fungi, from the popular 



