THE DEADLY NIGHTSHADE 



ATROPA BELLADONNA 



ATROPOS was one of the three Fates. She 

 xV it was who cut the thread of life spun by 

 her sister. And this plant is her namesake, for 

 it is, perhaps, the most poisonous plant that grows 



a, sepals, b, stamens on petals. (, stamen, d, stigma, style, ovary. 

 e, fruit surrounded by sepals. 



wild in our country, and is well named the " Death 

 Herb." Gerard's stem caution rings through three 

 hundred years, " But if you will follow my counsell 

 deale not with the same in any case, and banish it 

 from your gardens and the use of it also, being a 

 plant so furious and deadly, for it bringeth such as 



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