ANTIPATHIES TO FLOWERS. 303 



have in many cases, proved deleterious; De Candolle says 

 he has witnessed many ladies faint from carrying too many 

 of them on their persons, or from having placed them too 

 near them when asleep. It is asserted that people have died 

 from being shut up in a room in which the oleander was in 

 flower; hysterics have been brought on by the musk mallow; 

 saffron has been known to produce swooning, and the flowers 

 of Lobelia longiflora have caused suffocation.* 



ESTHER. 



And some trees are equally hurtful; the elder, the walnut, 

 and the anagyris, bring on headache in persons who sleep 

 beneath their shade; and the Manchineel tree is said to have 

 proved fatal to travellers who have trusted to its shelter. 



MRS. F. 



I believe that the idea that plants vitiate the air of a room 

 at night, because at that time they part with carbonic acid 

 and inhale oxygen, is much exaggerated. If it is vitiated at 

 all, it is by their powerful odors, which, as I have just shown 

 you, act upon the nerves of many persons.f 



ESTHER. 

 But they give out carbonic acid at night, do they not? 



MRS. F. 



Yes; but a single human being will vitiate the air more than 

 a hundred plants. However, the strong smell of flowers is 

 sufficient reason for banishing them from a sleeping apartment. 

 But it has been ascertained that the slight diminution of oxy- 

 gen, and increase of carbonic acid, which takes place during 

 the night, bears no considerable proportion to the degree in 

 which the contrary effect is observable during the day; and 

 therefore the immense quantity of vegetables which cover the 

 globe are constantly increasing the quantities of atmospheri- 

 cal oxygen which is diminishing by the breathing of animals, 

 and so contribute to render again fit for inspiration, the air 



* Lindley. t Lindley. 



