110 FLORAL EMBLEMS. 



DECEITFUL CHARMS. 



THORN-APPLE. Datura Stramonium. 



This dangerous narcotic plant clothes it- 

 self with such an elegant indented foliage, 

 and garnishes its branches with carollas of 

 so graceful and negligent a shape, and of 

 so pure a white, that all suspicion of its dele- 

 terious nature seems lulled to rest. Whilst 

 like the lamise of old, its charms only allure 

 that its power may destroy ; and hence, in 

 symbolical language, the datura is made the 

 emblem of deceitful charms, and the common 

 stramonium is made to express disguise. 



" Hence guilty joys, distastes, surmises, 

 False oaths, false tears, deceits, disguises." 



Pope. 



