326 libbard's-bane. [NovembeVf 



the attention of man to their greater care and cultivation, by 

 which they would become increased in size and flavour ; and I 

 doubt not that if the power of cultivation were arrested, these 

 plants would fall back into their wild state ; but I must leave the 

 solution of this to wiser heads than mine. 



I give however, for the benefit of the curious, some informa- 

 tion from old writers on this plant, which may aid in the de- 

 cision of the question. In Du Bartas' ' Divine Weeks,' trans- 

 lated by J, Sylvester, I find the following lines, in his notice 

 of poisonous plants : — 



" Only tlie touch of choak-'pard^ aconite 

 Bereaves the scorpion both of sense and might." 



This plant was by some of the old writers called Aconite, as 

 well as Libhard's-hane. Cole's Dictionary says, '' Libbards bane, 

 Aconitwn." Dr. William Turner (who has received such ample 

 justice in the ' Phytologist,' see '^ Chapters on British Botany ") 

 has the Libbard's-bane, of which he says, " The herbe that hath 

 been taken for Libbard's-bane groweth plenteously beside Morpeth 

 in Northumberland, in a wood called Cottingwood." 



In Topsell's 'History of Four-footed Beasts,' under the descrip- 

 tion of Panther, he says, "There is a kind of Henbane which is 

 called Pardalianches, or Libbard's-bane, which the inhabitants of 

 Pharnacus and Mount Ida were wont to lay in the Mountains 

 for the destroying of Leopards, Bardols and Panthers." See Leo- 

 pard' s-bane in Gerarde's History of Plants, which he calls Doro- 



; * I find in Nares's ' Glossary,' edited by Halhwell and Wright, the following : — 

 " Choak-tvort, a Plant. 

 " The Libians called it Reena, which impUes 

 It makes them dye hke birds 'twixt earth and skyes ; 

 The name of Choak-wort is to it assigned, 

 Because it stops the venom of the mind." 



Taylor's Works, 1630. 



In the same work is given " Choak Pear," a coarse kind of pear ; and the author 

 refers to Lilly's ' Euphues and liis England,' 1623, — " instead of a pill to purge 

 his hot blood, he gave him a choke pear, to stop his breath," etc. 



There is also " Choke-plum, a similar plum," which m Heywood's 'Spider and 

 Fhe ' is called a choking " choke plum." 



The description of Choke-pear in the Glossary is not satisfactory ; if the authors 

 had referred to Parkinson's 'Orchard,' they would have found the following : — " The 

 choke-pears and other wild pears, as they are not to furnish our orchard, but the 

 woods, forests, fields, and hedges, so we leave them to their unknown places and 

 to them that keep them and make good use of them." 



