230 THE RING OF NATURE 



fruit is the deadly part of this plant. Now that 

 it is ripe its colour is the deep black that can only 

 be attained over purple, and the juice is in fact 

 like purple ink. One of the best names for it is 

 Naughty Man's Cherry, the Naughty Man being, 

 of course, the Prince of the Underworld. Dwale 

 is another name. 



This is most probably the fruit, if fruit it was, 

 that according to Plutarch brought madness and 

 death to many Roman soldiers when retreating 

 from the Parthians. Says the historian : 



' He that had eaten of it immediately lost all 

 memory and knowledge ; but at the same time 

 would busy himself in turning and moving every 

 stone he met with, as if he was upon some very 

 important pursuit. The camp was full of unhappy 

 men bending to the ground, and thus digging up 

 and removing stones, till at last they were carried 

 off by a bilious vomiting, when wine, the only 

 remedy, was not to be had.' 



It was with dwale, too, that the Scots poisoned 

 Sweno's Danes, mixing the deadly juice in the 

 bread which they treacherously gave the in- 

 vaders during a truce. 



After the deadly one, the other nightshades 

 are comparatively innocuous. At any rate, they 

 have not poisoned so many people or so badly. 

 The more dangerous of our two species is the 

 black one, which some people call white. Its 

 blossoms are white, and its berries black. It 

 persists in coming up in the rich soil of an estab- 



