16 SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 



latwn) is occasionally found on the southern coast 

 of England, and is said to have grown both in 

 Norfolk and in Portland Island; but most botanists 

 doubt if this is a truly British flower, though De 

 Candolle thinks it is a variety of our common 

 yellow species. It is a remarkably elegant blossom, 

 the petals being of richest scarlet, and having a 

 black spot at the base of each. 



The genus was once called Chelidonium, and 

 the yellow horned species is referred to, under that 

 name, in the lines which stand at the head of this 

 chapter. Several botanists have said that this 

 flower possesses an acrid copper-coloured juice, 

 which causes madness. The writer of these pages 

 has, however, examined many specimens, and found 

 only a colourless juice. It is certainly of a most 

 acrimonious description ; so much ^so, that on ap- 

 plying to the tongue the finger which had touched 

 the broken stem, a sensation of burning was pro- 

 duced in the mouth and throat, which remained 

 for an hour afterwards. Ben Jonson mentions the 

 yellow horned poppy as one of the flowers used 

 by pretended witches and magicians in their incan- 

 tations. That the practice of burning herbs ac- 

 companied that of the magical art, there is no 

 doubt ; and it is equally evident that such plants 

 were selected as were likely, while burning, to 

 produce fumes of such a nature as to affect the 

 nervous system, so as to deceive the imaginations 

 of persons subjected to their influence. Various 

 plants of narcotic and stupifying properties also 

 were administered internally, just as the poor 

 Kamschatdales, when preparing themselves for the 

 service of their gods, are accustomed to produce 

 a kind of intoxication by eating their native plant, 



