250 OUR ROCK-GARDEN 



signifying I calm, and in like manner squinancy- 

 wort is based on the Greek word cynanche, signi- 

 fying quinsy, this plant being held to be a specific 

 for that disease. 



The reference to herb Gerard suggests another 

 plant having a no less saintly ascription I to which 

 we gladly give welcome in our garden the herb 

 Christopher. Its leaves are very richly cut, and the 

 stems, some one to two feet high, bear terminal 

 racemes of small yellowish-white flowers. These 

 are succeeded by little berries that are nearly black 

 in colour. " It's thought to be of a venimous and 

 deadly quality," says Lovell in 1665, but on ventur- 

 ing to taste the berries he declares that " by taste 

 they seem not pernicious." It is a very local 'plant, 

 and only found in the northern counties of England, 

 but down south it flourishes happily enough with 

 us, within a shilling return ticket to the heart of the 

 Metropolis and back, and forms a very acceptable 

 member of our floral fraternity. 



The seeds are undoubtedly poisonous, as Lovell 

 would have found if he had indulged in much more 

 than a taste, and entirely justify the popular name, 

 baneberry. How the baneberry got to be associated 



1 There are many others, we need scarcely say, as the 

 St. John's wort, and the cowslip, or herb Peter, the pendent 

 flowers of the latter being held suggestive of a bunch of keys. 

 The keys of the great Apostle are, however, when depicted 

 in religious art always but two in number. 



