108 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



largely on the virtues of the Henbane. He tells us of a wonderful balm, to cure dene 

 wounds and punctures made therefrom ; and after giving the receipt for the making 

 of this precious ointment, which may not now be sufficiently appreciated to justify its 

 transcription, he says, " I send this jewell unto you women of all sorts, especially such 

 as cure and helpe the poore and impotent of your countrey without reward. But 

 unto the beggarly rabble of witches charmers, and such like couseners, that regard 

 more to get money than to helpe for charitie, I wish these few medicines far from 

 their understanding and from those deceivers, whom I wish to be ignorant therein. 

 But courteous gentlewomen, I may not for the malice 1 doe beare unto such, hide 

 anything from you of such importance, and therefore take one more that followed), 

 wherewith I have done many and good cures, although of small cost ; but regard it 

 not the lesse for that cause." The curiously exciting effect first produced by the 

 action of Henbane on the system is illustrated by a story told of a gardener and his 

 wife, who lived happily and in perfect contentment, until one day the good man, 

 wishing to dry some Henbane plants, hung them in his bedroom unsuspiciously for 

 that purpose. From that hour domestic peace vanished, his wife became a perfect 

 shrew, and he returned each curtain lecture with interest. Happily the Divorce 

 Court was not then as accessible as it is now, or the speedy separation of the 

 discontented parties would have rendered the solution of the mystery for ever 

 impossible. Accidentally the Henbane was removed and peace restored. Each felt 

 that, after all, the other was not so much to blame, and with returning amiability came 

 increased happiness. It remained, however, for philosophers to trace the connection 

 between the baneful effects of the Henbane exhalations and the irritable, quarrelsome 

 condition of those who breathed them. 



Whether the common Henbane be the poison referred to in Shakespeare by 

 Hamlet's Ghost, is a matter of doubt ; but we must associate the name with the 

 murderous scene described as due to the "juice of cursed hebeiion in a vial." Dryden 

 speaks of it as 



" The poisoning henbane and the mandrake dread." 



Henbane has been used in past times in the same way as tobacco for smoking, and 

 was, when first introduced, called Tobacco of Peru. As late as Gerarde's time it was 

 called henne belle, a name apparently formed of lien and bell, suuggested by the 

 resemblance of its persistent and enlarged calyx to the scallop-edged bells of the 

 Middle Ages. 



EXCLUDED SPECIES. 

 PHYSALIS ALKEKENGI. Linn. 



" Naturalized on waste ground at Foles Hill, 'Warwickshire." 

 (Th. Kirk, in " riiytol." Ser. I. Vol. II. p. 971.) 



NICANDRA PHYSALOIDES. Gavtn. 



Partially naturalized in waste and cultivated ground at Ryde, 

 Shanklin, and other parts of the Isle of Wight. Dr. Bromficld 



