88 



FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



statements are not altogether trustworthy. An old writer 

 affirms some such property, and the statement is copied 

 without question into one book after another, no one 

 apparently caring to take the trouble to verify it. Our 

 experience of the reputed fondness of the ass for the rest- 

 harrow we have already referred to, and some few other 

 such experiences have made us somewhat sceptical. We 

 remember, for example, reading that the juice of the berry 

 of the dwale, or deadly-nightshade, would stain paper 

 a beautiful and permanent purple. We tried it ; the 

 beauty was even at first by no means apparent, and the 

 dull and dingy colour of the paper in a day or two's 

 time afforded an effectual answer as to the question of 

 the permanency of the dye. 



