600 BOTANICAL NOTES^ NOTICES^ AND QUERIES. [OctobeV. 



SO for some time. The surgeon who attended him, Mr. Eickards, thought 

 he was suffering from pleurisy and disease of the kidneys, and treated 

 him accordingly. The deceased, however, continued to suffer, and died 

 at half-past eleven o'clock the same evening. On a post-mortem exami- 

 nation being made, the remains of Mountain-Ash berries were discovered 

 in the stomach of the deceased, who had no doubt eaten them while in 

 the fields. M?'. Richards was clearly of opinion that the deceased had been 

 poisoned by these Mountain-Ash berries, and the jury returned a verdict 

 accordingly." Perhaps some of the readers of the ' Phytologist ' will 

 undertake to confirm or refute the opinion that the berries in question are 

 poisonous. It is as well the public should know the truth. Once let the 

 ' Phytologist ' blaze forth the truth to its comparatively few readers, and 

 the journals will soon lend it wings to reach the mass. E. G. 



Grasmere, September 24, 1858. 



... I would be very glad to know what Grass this can be. It is 

 quite a stranger to me. It was observed growing along the highway- 

 side between St. Alban's and St. Michael's, nearer the former place, 

 indeed, not a quarter of a mile from the Abbey. I at first thought it 

 might be a Panicum or Diffitaria, but it is evidently a procumbent 

 perennial Grass, and freely rooting at eveiy joint. I hope you will be 

 able to keep it, or at all events until its flowers are produced ; on August 

 the 12th, when I gathered it^ none were visible. ... W. P. 



Tobacco. 



Professor Johnston, in his excellent work, ' The Chemistiy of Common 

 Life,' has the following : — " The crude oil of Tobacco is supposed to be 

 ' the juice of cursed Ilebenon,' described by Shakspere as a distilment" 

 and he then refers to ' Hamlet,' where the juice of Hebenon is alluded 

 to (act i. sc. 5). I wish to ask whether any distilled juice of Tobacco 

 was used in Shakespeare's time, or was the plant known in this country ? 



S. B. 

 Mandrake of the Bible. 



The Mandrake of the Sacred Scriptm-es is one of the species dubioe. 

 Sprengel, in his ' History of Botany,' states that it is Cucumis Budaim. 

 On the other hand, Dr. Adams, the learned editor of ' Paulus jEgineta ' 

 and commentator thereon, gives his verdict in favour of Atropa Mandra- . 

 gora. The question is here offered to the learned readers of the ' Phytolo- 

 gist;' and though it be a subject of curious speculation rather than of 

 absolute certainty, yet it is worth consideration. Querist. 



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