696 



TOXICACEOUS HERBS. 



before the heat is increased, otherwise the tobacco would cure too light- 

 coloured ; and the midribs must be completely killed before the leaves are 

 taken off the stalks ; for if not once made very dry, they would never keep. 



" The power which the leaves possess of absorbing moisture in a damp 

 atmosphere is immense, and very curious : a person unacquainted with it 

 would not believe, on seeing a leaf in its driest state, that it could ever be 

 brought back so as to be again pliable. 



" The number of leaves that each plant ought to be allowed to produce 

 should be determined by the quality of the ground, the earliness or lateness 

 of the season, &c. : when these com])ine to the advantage of the plants, they 

 are able to perfect proportionally more leaves. By a timely and careful 

 attention to such circumstances, and by pinching off the lateral shoots, the 

 climate of England, or that of Ireland, is in every respect sufficient to the 

 full perfection of tobacco. Four months are not fully required to bring it 

 to maturity. 



" In the case of large plantations being made, shading with flower -pots 

 would be attended with considerable expense : it is not, however, of absolute 

 necessity ; for, when tobacco plants are pricked out some time previous to 

 planting, they make good roots, which are of greater benefit to them, after 

 they are planted, than shading is. Shading with pots, however, is certainly 

 useful ; but it is by no means an essentially necessary part of the manage- 

 ment of tobacco. The leaves flag under a hot sun ; but, if the ground is 

 moist, quickly recover." — (Gard. Mag. vol. x. p. 503.) 



1001. The white hel/ebore, Veratrum album L., is a melanthaceous tuber- 

 culous-rooted perennial, a native of Denmark, and formerly in much repute 

 as a powerful medicine. The part employed is the root dried and powdered ; 

 and as it has lately been found more efficacious than tobacco powder (1223) 

 in destroying the caterpillar on the gooseberry, it might be worth while to 

 cultivate it in gardens for that purpose. The plant is not rare, and is easily 

 propagated by seeds or by division. At two years from the seed the roots 

 may be fit for use, and may be taken up, dried on a hothouse flue, and beat 

 into powder, first on a stone with the cast-iron rammer (fig. 37 c, in p. 136) , 

 and afterwards, if thought necessary, to a finer powder, in a mortar. A 

 decoction of the leaves and stems might probably also be effective ; or they 

 might be treated like those of the tobacco, and afterwards used in fumigation 

 or as snuff, 



1602. The foxglove, Digitalis purpurea L., is a scrophularinaceous 

 biennial, a native of Britain, and common in copse- woods and hedge- wastes. 

 The whole plant is poisonous, and may be used for the same purpose, and in 

 the same manner, as the tobacco. 



1603. The henbo,ne, Hyoscyamus niger L., and the thorn-apple. Datura 

 Stramonium i., are well known indigenous annuals, of highly narcotic 

 properties, which, if treated like the tobacco, would probably be equally 

 efficacious in the destruction of insects. 



1604. Walnut leaves, in strong decoction, are found to destroy worms ; and 

 the leaves of the sweet bay, Laurus ndbilis L,, which are used in very small 

 quantities to flavour tarts, have been also put into frames and pine-stoves to 

 destroy the red spider, by the evaporisation of the prussic acid with which 

 ihey abound. 



