48 



" Two lovely little children went, when summer was in prime, 

 Into a garden beautiful, beneath a southern clime ; 

 A brother and a sister twins, and each to each most dear ; 

 Nor was the mother of these babes beset with any fear. 



" 'Twas in that season of the year when on the blooming earth 

 Each flower and plant, and shrub and tree, to all their fruits gave birlh ; 

 And 'mid them all, and most exposed to catch the passing view, 

 With purple flowers and berries red, the climbing Nightshade grew. 



" Up rose the little boy and ran, upon the bush to gaze, 

 And then his sister followed quick, and both were in a maze, 

 For berries half so beautiful they ne'er before had seen, 

 So forth he rashly stretch'd his hand among the branches green. 



'*' These children then the berries pull'd, and of them eat their fill, 

 Nor did they ever dream the while, that they were doing ill : 

 ' They are so pleasant and so sweet,' exultingly they cried, 

 And merry was their prattling laugh, to see their fingers dyed. 



" But suddenly the sister stopp'd. her rosy cheek grew pale; 



4 Oh, brother! brother! hold me up, for something doth me ail,' 

 And soon he felt himself turn sick, and feeble, chilly, weak, 

 And as he totter'd on the grass, he bruis'd his sister's cheek. 



" Exhausted though that infant was; upon his tender breast 

 He plac'd the little Charlotte's head, that she might softer rest ; 

 The hapless creature did but think his sister only slept, 

 And when his eyesight dimmer grew, to her he closer crept. 



" The evening clos'd upon those babes, who slept away their breath, 

 And mourning o'er his cruel task, away went grieving, Death ; 

 Alas ! that such twin roses fair, which morning saw in bloom, 

 Should wither in the sunny land, ere came the twilight gloom." 



COMMON, OR GARDEN NIGHTSHADE. Solanum niyrum. 



Plate 3, fig. 4. 



Leaves ovate, bluntly toothed. Flowers white. Berries black. 

 On rubbish, dung-hills, &c., growing eight or ten inches high, 

 upright and much branched ; its berries are round, black, and 

 even more poisonous than the last. In flower in July. 



BINDWEED. CONVOLVULUS. 

 SMALL BINDWEED. Convolvulus arvensis. 



Plate 3, fig. 5. 

 Stem trailing. Bracts small, distant from the flower. 



A pretty little plant, not strong enough to support itself, but 

 creeping with a few stems for a foot or more along the ground, 

 or up the stems of plants, wherever the soil is light and sandy, 

 and growing very deeply, with long white roots. The stem is 

 zigzag and twisted, bearing alternate, arrow-shaped, stalked 

 leaves, in the axils of which grow the solitary flowers, borne on 



