66 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



if our younger children came to harm through its temp- 

 tations, we should expect a jury to return a verdict of con- 

 structive homicide. The berries are luscious-looking and 

 sweet to the taste, and have therefore frequently proved 

 the cause of fatal accidents, children especially heing 

 attracted by them ; and thus it is that Gerarde's advice is 

 so generally complied with : " I you will follow my 

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

 from your gardens, being a plant so furious and deadly. 

 Banish, therefore, these pernitious plants from all places 

 neare to your houses where children do resort, which do 

 oftentimes long and lust af fcer things most vile and filthy,' 

 and much more a berrie of a bright shining black colour 

 and of such great beautie." 



The deadly nightshade should be sought after amongst 

 old ruins and rough stony wastes in the South of England. 

 It has occurred in more northerly localities, but is there 

 probably the remains of a former cultivation of the plant, 

 as, in spite of the great danger attending its use, it was 

 employed medicinally in the Middle Ages. It grows very 

 freely in many of the old chalk-pits in Kent. Gerarde 

 found it in abundance at Highgate, in the north of London; 

 but that particular locality has long since fallen into the 

 hands of the builders. Several of the older writers speak 

 of it as a common plant in the environs of the metropolis. 



The root of the deadly nightshade is perennial, its stock 

 .very large, branched, and freely creeping. The stalks that 

 spring from it are numerous, the thickness of one's thumb 

 or so at their base, and reaching to a height of some three 

 or four feet. They are longer, however, than they look, as 

 they have a way of spreading outwards, and their upper 

 extremities are almost horizontal for some distance. This 



