612 
THE GARDENERS' 
CHRONICLE. 
[Szpr. 12, 
10 to 20 per cent. of the sets planted have not de- 
cayed at all ; and were fresh sound Potatoes when 
taken up. Some of them were whole and some 
cut, and the living plants were still attached to 
them. In this instance the disease would appear 
not to have proceeded from the set, and an infer- 
ence might be drawn that the evil must be traced 
to some other source. But these old sets, appa- 
rently so sound to the eye, in about ten days 
deeayed entirely, and in a very unusual way. 
There was no appearance of fungus. Sir CHARLES 
Lrmow examined them with a strong microscope, 
and could not see a trace of mould; but the 
substance of the Potato seemed to have melted into 
a viscous black fluid like treacle. The outer skin 
still showed organisation, in the shape of grains of 
sand, but the pulp was quite disorganised. It is, 
therefore, to be presumed ihat Potatoes thus appa- 
rently sound, nevertheless possess some peculiar 
property which prevents their keeping, and may be 
communicable to their offspring. 
A still more curious fact of the same nature has 
been brought to our notice by F. J. Granam, 
Esq., of Cranford. This gentleman furnished us 
with some Potato plants raised in a vinery last 
December, and placed in the spring in a partially 
shaded border, where they have remained ever 
since, without being turned out of their pots. 
Their tops were blotched by the Ist of August ; 
nevertheless, we found the old sets, whole Po- 
tatoes, still attached to them, not only perfectly 
sound, but containing a considerable quantity of 
starch. These sets have not run into decay like 
Sir CHanrEs Lemon’s, but are still quite sound 
and safe. Was the starch deposited for a second 
time in the cells of these Potatoes? or had it never 
been consumed ? 
Mr. GnauaM has also enabled us to strike out 
of our list one of the supposed facts given at p. 548. 
We had assumed, as an invariable rule, that 
blighted Potato stems are attacked by a brown 
decay below ground, long before any disease ap- 
pears in the leaves. And our observations had 
failed to produce any instance to the contrary. We 
must, however, now modify that statemeut; for 
Mr. Gnauaw's Potatoes, above alluded to, with 
sound starchy old sets, although blighted, pre- 
sented no sign of the brown underground spotting. 
We had proposed to add some remarks upon the 
supposed effect of the smoke of copper farnaces iu 
averting the disease. But although, owing to the 
kindness of correspondents, we already possess 
some positive information upon this point, we prefer 
delaying its communication for a week or two. 
FAMILIAR BOTANY. 
THE DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. 
as we do speak about ? 
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Iw ruined and desolate places, in the skirts of woods, 
among the offal of a garden, there grows a * wicked 
weed” which our ancestors called Dwale. Its very 
name is portentous of misery and woe. Unlike some 
of those plants which conceal their venom under a fair 
aspect, or disguise it by a fragrant odour, this is fetid 
in its leaves, and repulsive in its flowers, which are 
dull pale chocolate coloured bells with a lurid yellow 
bottom. There is not a point of beauty about the thing 
till it bears its fruit, but then it becomes only too 
attractive. No cattle will touch it; not.a fly or grub 
finds a resting place or a pasture among its leaves, and 
it may even be said to be shunned by its own species, 
for it usually grows year after year singly, in the same 
place, without a companion near it. 
The root of this plant is a thick tap, deeply plunged 
jn the earth. Its stems grow about two or three feet 
high, and produce from their forks the solitary nodding 
blossoms. The leaves are dull green, and pretty con- 
stantly in pairs on one side of the stem, as if they had 
been half torn from their sockets, and misplaced 
in the setting, They are unequal in size, have 
a soft almost greasy feel, and are in form not un- 
like an egg cut through lengthwise, but sharper. 
In each of the bell-shaped flowers are 5 stamens 
adhering to the sides, and a roundish 2-celled ovary, 
with one style, many ovules, and a kidney-shaped 
hairy stigma, with a pair of blubber lips. The border of 
the corolla is regularly cut into 5 divisions. As soon as 
the flower drops off, it is succeeded by a green ball, 
filled with small seeds ; this as it swells becomes dis- 
tended with deep purple juice, till at last it grows into 
a fruit, succulent, sweetish to the taste, tempting to 
the eye, and not unlike a black Cherry. 
‘In Latin it is called Belladonna,’a word signifying 
fair lady, and first applied by the Italians. The learned 
Bodzus a Stapel says it obtained this name, because 
people took a potion prepared from it in order to pro- 
Jy formed a part. But its true history is that a cos- 
NEY Ss pleasant dreams, of which handsome women inva- 
was once prepared from it. Distilled Dwale- 
A water was said to remove freckles, and to render the 
complexion fair and white, But it has long been for- 
- gvtten, the gentle sex having discovered that “le meil- 
leur de tous les cosmétiques est une vie sobre et régu- 
lière ; il conserve la santé, et la fraicheur qui en est 
l'expression." We now call it the Deadly Nightshade, 
but the Germans term it Wolf’s-cherry and Devil's- 
berry, and thereby point out how much it is to be 
shunned. 
These names reveal its nature. It is a fatal poison 
in every part—berries, leaves, stem, and root ; and the 
first are a fruitful source of fatal accidents. Halfa 
berry is said to have caused death. ence the fruit 
has been occasionally used as an i ional poison. The 
old chroniclers tell of a legion of Danes having been 
feasted by the Scotch, who finished them off by a mess 
of Dwale, from which they never woke; a German case 
is recorded of death having been caused by crushing 
the berries in wine, and an old woman is said to have 
killed a person by a potion prepared by boiling the 
flower-buds in water. 
Accident, however, is more commonly the cause of 
injury from these berries, They are gathered in wild 
places by ignorant people, who think no ill of a fruit so 
fair. A French writer mentions an instance of 150 
soldiers having been poisoned near Dresden ; and less 
extensive instances occur frequently, of which we have 
at this time an example, in the case of a man now lying 
in prison to take his trial for poisoning persons in 
London by selling the berries for tarts. 
as would prevent such fatal consequences as these? A 
very little instruction would render such instances 
impossible.—7. E. 
STITUTE THE NUTRITIVE PORTIONS OF 
THE POTATO. 
By the Rev. Prof. HENsLow. 
(Concluded from p. 549.) 
According to Prof. Johnston, 12 lbs, bread contain 
18 oz. starch and 3 oz. gluten. If we consider the xe- 
maining 7 oz. to be water, we shall be far within his 
own estimate in his larger work, where he states bread 
may contain as much as 46 per cent. of water. In our 
case we are not now allowing for more than 25 per cent. 
Now it would require 2 Ibs, 14 oz. bread to supply 5 0% 
gluten; but this quantity would also supply 30 oz. 
starch, which would yield 13 oz. carbon; that is to say 
5 oz. more carbon than we are now supposing to be 
daily necessary for respiration. This superfluous 5 oz. 
starch, together with the oxygen and hydrogen of the 
other 8 oz., would furnish the whole of the superfluous 
elementary matter (exclusive of that in the water), which 
will have been introduced, beyond the quantity that was 
needful. In the same way, we may calculate for the 
other two substances (Potatoes and raw meat) named 
inthe Table. i may observe that there is no super- 
fluous nitrogen where bread alone, or Potatoes alone, 
may be the diet established on these principles ; an 
employed. 
carbon and nitrogen, we might make our estimate for 2 
diet which shall consist partly of animal and partly of 
vegetable substances ; or else entirely of animal matter, 
by admitting fat or oil (which contain no nitrogen) to 
replace the starch or other vegetable materials in such 
estimate. In the lower compartment of Table C, I 
have given a calculation of this sort for bread and 
meat together. Although it is impossible to avoid a 
superfluity of oxygen and hydrogen, it will be seen that 
these elements are here liberated in the proportion iu 
which they combine to form water. Since milk may 
contain a superfluity of nitrogen in comparison with 
the carbon (in the same way as we find to be the case 
in Jean meat), a combination between milk and starch - 
might be so adjusted as to secure no excess of either. 
Such a combination may be made with about 8 oz. 
starch and 3 quarts of milk, and consequently a very 
nutritious and economical diet would be the result. 
I trust I have said enough to show you the general 
bearing of those principles upon which chemists found 
their caleulati when estimating the nutritive pro- 
perties of animal and vegetable substances. I have 
also given you examples, in the ease of the Potato, and 
two or three other substances, which, I hope, will be 
quite sufficient to convince you of the great importance 
of such calculations in the hands of chemists and phy- ; 
siologists better acquainted with the details of those 
sciences than I have any pretensions to be. It must, 
however, be borne in mind that such calculations may 
be worse than useless when they are considered all-sut- 
fieient guides to our judgment in the choice of food. 
They may be extremely valuable in pointing out to us 
s; DS TS 
Of these cases phrenzy is a symptom ; persons eat- 
ing them become maniacs in a few hours; and this 
quality is charaeteristic of the whole plant; for when 
Shakspere ealled the Deadly Nightshade the * insane 
root" he only expressed poetically its well known pro- 
perties. “Even the dried root produces insanity," are 
the.very words of Haller. Hence the names of the 
old herbalists, who called it the mortiferous, somniferous, 
or furious um. 
It is, however, certain that some constitutions are 
able to resist this poison much better than others. It 
seems doubtful, indeed, whether any effect at all is 
produced by small quantities upon some people. Haller 
lays it down as a rule, that three or four may be eaten 
without danger; and he asserts that he has seen a 
larger number swallowed with impunity by a medical 
student of Cologne, named Simon. A Danish gardener 
once employed near London, is said to have habitually 
swallowed a berry when annoyed by the impertinencies 
of his companions ; and a ease is quoted by Dr. Chris- 
tian of a French lad who ate a pound of the berries be- 
fore going to bed, and nevertheless recovered, although 
he was not subjected to medical treatment till the next 
morning. These facts give some colour to the assertion 
of the man now awaiting his trial, that he did not know 
the berries to be poisonous, because he had eaten them 
himself. 
But how deplorable it is that the population of a city 
like London should be so profoundly ignorant as not to 
know these berries when offered for sale. We hear of 
no policeman stopping Hillard’s trade ; indeed, it was 
at first supposed that they were Sloes that he was 
selling ; even the reporters in the police-courts seem to 
have known no better. Would it not be as well if as 
much botany were introduced into our national schools 
the relative prop of different p of food 
which have already been acknowledged sufficiently 
grateful to the taste, and approved for the nourishment 
they have been known to afford. They may also serve 
to show us how extremely cautious we ought to be in 
maintaining a good quality in the various artieles ad- 
mitted in the dietaries of our workhouses and prisons. 
Otherwise, we may inadvertently be guilty of extreme 
injustice to the unhappy persons subjected to those 
trials which the discipline of such’ places makes it 
necessary they should submit to there. Different va- 
rieties of Wheat, of Potato, or other food admitted into 
those dietaries, may vary very considerably inthe relative 
proportions between the carbon and nitrogen they are cal- 
culated to supply. There are certain varieties of Wheat 
which are expressly cultivated for their starch alone, on 
account of the superabundance of that ingredient com- 
pared with the gluten. The same is true of the Potato. 
The very general dislike which our poor manifest to 
the use of Rice, may have arisen from the practical ex- 
perience they have obtained how little gluten it con- 
tains in comparison with good Wheat flour. Now, 
have no wish to join in any outery against the poor 
laws, much less to lay upon them auy consequences 
which may have resulted from their mal-administration; 
but it seems to me to be one of the chief conditions 
under which publie relief should be administered to 
paupers, that no one should be able to complain with 
justice that the food allowed him in the workhouse was 
insufficient to appease the cravings of nature. 1 
no judge whether the dietaries with which our unions 
are furnished, by an authority from which the guar- 
dians cannot appeal, are always calculated for securing 
the object which they do. Certainly, I know that able- 
bodied men constantly complain that they lose their 
strength, and feel continued craving whilst they are in 
the workhouse. May not such complaints be sometimes 
(at least) owing to.the very causes to which I have re- 
ferred? Where a dietary has been calculated for some- 
thing very like a minimum supply necessary for securing 
a sufficiency of the two elements essential to zeep aka 
and nutrition, very slight differences m the quality o! 
the food provided may so far alter the relations between 
the nitrogen and carbon as to subject the able-bodied 
inmates (in particular) to that constant craving of Mee 
they complain so commonly, that I have no doubt t z 
are speaking the truth, The necessary restraints tO 
that there is no superfluous carbon where meat alone is | 
In order to avoid any superfluity of both - 
