248 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



But these we can do without. There are others that 

 a gardener may take a pride in delivering from the 

 associations of misuse and in treating so skilfully 

 that their beauty will surprise those who have only 

 seen them maltreated. Plants that deserve such 

 deliverance and to get associations more worthy of 

 their beauty are, besides Lobelias, the garden Hya- 

 cinths, the early Tulips, Echeverias, and other plants 

 associated with carpet bedding, and even Geraniums 

 and Calceolarias. But we have said enough about 

 the unpleasant associations of flowers. They nearly 

 all come from misuse, and will quickly disappear 

 when misuse ceases. 



Yet there are some plants that have associations, 

 evil and sinister rather than merely unpleasant, plants 

 that belong to the romance of malign enchantment 

 and about which legends have gathered that we can- 

 not forget when we look at them. The chief of these 

 in England is the Deadly Nightshade, Atropa bella- 

 donna, which has every sinister quality. It is rare 

 and looks as poisonous as it is, and it grows usually 

 about old ruins and deserted houses. Its names, 

 both English and Latin, prove how much it has im- 

 pressed the imagination of men. It is the viper among 

 plants, and one might expect a viper to lie in ambush 

 in its shadow. Indeed it is often associated with ser- 

 pents in allegorical pictures. Other plants of the 

 same family are scarcely less sinister. The Henbane, 

 for instance, is apt, like the Deadly Nightshade, to 

 grow about ruins and deserted houses; and, though 



