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 
cription, 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. 
Bui 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 followeth, 
wherewith I have done many and good cures, although of small cost ; but regard it 
not the le«se 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 truce 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 hebenon 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, whoa 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 Eolcs Hill, Warwickshire." 
(Tli. Kirk, in « Phytol." Scr. I. Vol. II. p. 971.) 
NICANDRA PHYSALOIDES. Carta. 
Partially naturalized in waste and cultivated ground at Ryde, 
Shanklin, and other parts of the Isle of Wight. Dr. Bromlield 
