ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE. 



In all the blooming waste it left behind, 



As that the Sweetbriar yields it ; and the shower 



Meets not a rose that buds in beauty's bower 



One half so lovely-; yet it grows along 



The poor girl's pathway, by the poor man's door. 



Such are the simple folks it dwells among ; 



And humble as the bud, so humble be the song." 



ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE {firc(Ea lutetiana).— 

 Sorcery. Witchcraft. 



In damp and humid places, where the superstitious mind 

 may imagine every kind of hideous reptile, and birds of evil 

 omen, to congregate ; and plants and weeds of noxious pro- 

 perties to thrive; and where the wizened wizard and the 

 shrivelled hag, of face repulsive, might most fitly perform 

 their incantations ; there does this plant delight to grow, as 

 "amid the mouldering bones and decayed coffins in the 

 ruinous vaults of Sleaford church, in Lincolnshire," and like 

 localities. Of its favourite habitat, Darwin, in his " Loves of 

 the Poets," thus writes, — ' 



" Thrice round the grave Circsea prints her tread, 

 And chants the numbers which disturb the dead." 



Moore, in the " Feast of Roses," introduces an enchantress, 

 who professes to have the power of charming back the strayed 

 love of Selim to Nourmahal, by means of flowers, — 



" 'Tis the hour 

 That scatters spells on herb and flower, 



83 



