Poisonous Fruits. 



compensated by inexhaustible variety of bright colours 

 and endless fashion of cluster. Recall the spectacle pre- 

 sented at Michaelmas by the opulus and the mountain- 

 ash, the innumerable shining scarlet of the hedgerow 

 brier, the crimson of the dulcamara, the festoons of the 

 curling bryony, the deep-toned purple of the elder, the 

 raven-wing thyrsi of the privet, and at Christmas the 

 bracelets of Old England's incomparable holly. As in 

 the field so in the garden, where the impearled snow- 

 berry is challenged by the scarlet aucuba, the berbery, 

 the Mahonia, the cotoneasters in their many kinds, the 

 thorns, no fewer, the arbutus, the pyracantha, and the 

 passion-flower, with golden pendants as large as plums. 

 Every good conservatory makes equal show in its plenty 

 of scarlet Rivina, ardisias, and cherry-solanums, in its 

 white leucobotrys, and azure-berried Billardiera and 

 elaeocarpus. Berried plants, in the hands of the skilful 

 decorator, stand abreast of the best examples of tinted 

 foliage, and often prove more valuable for enduring orna- 

 ment than even the longest-blooming flowers. 



Before parting with them it is unwillingly that we are 

 constrained to remember that among fruits there are 

 many that are deleterious, malevolent, and even poisonous. 

 That a fruit should at any time prove false to its exalted 

 ideal is a disheartening discovery, and one rendered 

 more lamentable by the traitors being detected among 

 the Berries, since it is these which are most likely to 

 seduce the unwary. Happily, the number of really 

 poisonous berries is very small in comparison with the 



