WILD FRUITS 229 



four feet at its best, but it is a wonderful miniature. 

 In the very early spring, even in January, there 

 are greenish blossoms like long lilies hanging from 

 the under side of the crown like crown imperials ; 

 but now, the coco-nuts are there, lately green, 

 but now turned purple-black. A sad poisoner is 

 Daphne laureola, as well as its cousin D. mezereum, 

 a wildling of ours that has been almost extermi- 

 nated in the woods so that it may set its bright 

 pink February blossoms in ten thousand cottage 

 gardens. 



In many a place on the dry hillside stand the 

 big green bushes of the deadly nightshade. Any 

 one knows it at sight for a potato, though it belongs 

 in blossom to a different tribe of the Solanaceae. 

 The blossom of the deadly nightshade is a bell 

 (of a deadly, liverish purple), whereas the potato, 

 tomato, woody nightshade, white nightshade, 

 Duke of Argyll's tea tree, and many new orna- 

 mental creepers in our gardens have the star-like 

 blossom with the yellow stamens pressed into a 

 cone. The leaves of the deadly nightshade 

 (Atropa belladonna) are potato-like, but rather 

 shinier than most varieties, and their pattern as 

 light-catchers is one of the most beautiful that we 

 can find, every space being filled with lobes of 

 diminishing size till very little light passes through 

 the bush to the ground. 



It is in the fruiting stage that the belladonna 

 shows its potatoship best, the likeness to the 

 potato ball being, except in colour, exact. The 



