110 EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. [^April, 



The jury^ in the Armley poisoning case^ relied on Mr. Ricard 

 the surgeon^ s evidence^ and returned a verdict — " That the de- 

 ceased boy had been poisoned by eating Mountain- Ash berries." 

 Dr. Edward Smith, in his treatise on Botany^ published in 

 'Orr's Circle of the Sciences/ under Class 12, Icosandria, says, 

 " These plants, with the exception of the Pyrus Aucuparia, or 

 Mountain Ash, are edible/' Dr. Smith might, with all his " ap- 

 pliances and means to boot," have taken the trouble, or the plea- 

 sure, of ascertaining the fact before sending his sheets to the press, 

 but so it is. Sometimes doctors, like lawyers, write and talk to 

 show that they know more about these subjects than others. 

 Some years ago, a celebrated knight of the legal profession acted 

 as counsel for a prisoner on trial for the murder of a woman at 

 Slough. The evidence against him went to prove that she had 

 been poisoned with prussic acid, but the learned " knight of the 

 black silk robe" produced witnesses to support his argument that 

 the woman died from the poison in apple-pips, w^hich were found 

 in her stomach ; but notwithstanding the eloquence of the learned 

 knight, the jury, knowing what apple-jnps were better than the 

 advocate, rejected this evidence, and the prisoner was convicted 

 of wilful murder, and hanged at Aylesbury. 



In Miller's Dictionary there is a full account of this plant, its 

 uses and properties, and he tells us that the berries dried and 

 reduced to poivder make wholesome bread ; infused in water they 

 make an acid liquor somewhat like perry, which is drunk by the 

 poorer people in Wales and in the island of Jura; the juice of 

 them is used as an acid for punch. 



In Germany the fowlers bait springes, suspended in the woods, 

 with these berries, to entice the redwings and fieldfares, whence 

 the trivial name of Aucuparia. 



The superstitious uses of this plant have been before alluded 

 to in the ' Phytologist,' but I have not heard from any of its 

 contributors that it is found growing near Druids' temples, as 

 Mr. Lightfoot informs us, nor in churchyards, as related by Mr. 

 Evelyn. S. B. 



Trifolium elegans. By the Eev. E. Cole. 



Bamston, Feb. 7, 1859. 



Sir, — I take the liberty to enclose some specimens of a Clover 



