17 
there, it is found wild in England, but it is almost cer¬ 
tain to be in gardens, putting forth in early spring the 
four petalled, eight stamened, one pistilled flowers, and 
in Autumn the dark laurel-like leaves and red berries, 
which if eaten by us would blister the mouth and throat 
by their acrid juice, and yet are a favorite food for robins 
and other little birds in the winter. It might not however 
be safe for us to eat the birds afterwards, nor honey 
made from the blossoms. It is said that many of the Ten 
thousand Greeks, in their retreat, were seriously ill from 
partaking of honey made by the Bees of the Caucasus, 
where the Mezereon grows in great quantities. 
Our name for it is said to be Persian, the French call it BOIS 
gentil, or pretty wood, and the Italians laureola femina 
— the lady laurel. 
THE SPURGE LAUREL (PI. XXIV) — is very like the Meze¬ 
reon, and has many of the same qualities. — It is equally 
rare in England. 
PLATE XVIII. — What country child has not wandered by 
the hedge in pursuit of crimson Lords, or fair white La¬ 
dies, rolled up in their green mantles, or sitting within 
their hoods displayed, like sea nymphs in a picture under 
their fluttering garments ? and what child has not in 
Autumn been warned against touching the bead like 
scarlet berries that cluster round the short stem, and 
well that it should be warned, for these shiny fruits are 
highly acrid and blistering, and yet the ARUM is a plant 
that might figure among wholesome friends quite as sui¬ 
tably as among the poisons. It has a tuber or round 
root like the crocus or colchicum, which is full of starch, 
and free from poison, and it is this which ground up, 
baked and boiled becomes the white powder called Arum 
root or Arrow root. Some is made even from our com¬ 
mon wild cuckoo-pint or lords and ladies, especially in 
the Isle of Portland, whence it is called Portland Sago, 
but most of what we use is from a large plant which 
grows in the West Indies. 
The Arum root sends up a number of footstalks bearing 
handsome heart shaped leaves, often spotted with black, j 
and one large pointed green spathe, which unrolling 
gradually, discloses the tall red or white fleshy column, 
a sort of stem, bearing around the base a ring of white 
hairlike stamens, and beneath them again the carpels, 
like a string of crimson beads, which in time becomes 
the scarlet berries that alone remain in the Autumn 
when the curious and beautiful blossom has passed 
away. Perhaps no plant is more curiously divided 
between food and poison than are the Arum kind. Some 
foreign sorts, in especial the Zebra, a jet black co¬ 
lumn, with a striped spathe, have a most horrible smell. 
— One kind smells so like carrion as even to deceive 
the fleshflies, which lay their eggs in it, thinking it 
will provide food for their grubs, and there is even 
heat to add to the delusion, for the warmth within the 
spathe has been proved by the thermometer to be 
greater than that of the air without. They grow to 
a very large size in hot countries, and their tubers 
are eaten under the name of Yams and Cocoa bread. 
It is for its sleepy or narcotic qualities that the next plant 
figures among the poisons, the HERB PARIS, a plant 
not very commonly wild, but welcome when it is found 
for the curious regularity of the growth, the leaves 
all springing together four in number, the calyx in four 
sepals, the corolla in four petals, the stamens twice 
four, the pistils four, the berry four cleft. The leaves 
are very dark, the calyx and corolla pale green, the 
berry dark purple, and the whole plant somewhat 
obscure and gloomy. 
Gloom is the character usually given to the Tree next 
ensuing, the YEW pi. XIX (fig. a), though the delicate 
spray here pictured with the brilliant berries has any 
thing but a dismal appearance. 
The evergreen is indeed very dark and solid, but it was 
first planted in churchyards, not for the sake of its 
grave colouring, but for the sake of the hard wood, 
which was the best material for the long bows of the 
English Archers, — The “tough yew bow” was such 
an admirable weapon that not an English peasant was 
allowed to be without one in early times, meetings 
were held for practice with them, and many a time 
they won the day in battle. Yews are very long lived 
trees, and a great many are still living which were 
planted even in the time of bows and arrows, and 
some old patriarchs are known to be at least 800 years 
of age. It is said to grow for 100 years, and then 
to stop, and although the centre in lapse of time de¬ 
cays, there is such a quantity of new wood constantly 
forming that it almost seems as if time could not kill it. 
The dark masses of foliage look beautiful among the lighter 
trees in the hedges, and many a churchyard is orna¬ 
mented with a yew clipped into the shape of a Mush¬ 
room. — Indeed in the time of Queen Anne, it was 
the fashion to clip yew bushes into the most fantastic 
shapes, peacocks, lions, balls, towers, arches, and a 
tree is still standing at Arlington near Hounslow which 
used to be clipped into a pyramid, standing on a canopy 
and bearing a Globe, on which stood a weathercock 
eighty feet above the ground. The leaves of the yew 
tree are very narrow; dark green and silvery below, the 
stamens and pistils grow on separate trees, so that there 
are some that never bear fruit. — They however bear 
little circular catkins, covered with buff coloured pollen 
from the eight or ten stamens, and are seldom far distant 
from the fertile trees, which have tiny green cups inclo¬ 
sing’ a hard green germ, something like a little model of 
an acorn in a cup. but as the summer goes on, the green 
cup softens, enlarges and turns red, while the seed within 
sinks deeper down within it, and at last when ripe, 
the fruit is a bright waxy looking red vase, of a very 
soft shiny texture, with a jet black nut looking up 
from within it, very beautiful in the contrast with the 
dark foliage, over which it is profusely scattered. Though 
the red cup has a disagreeable mawkish sweet taste, 
village boys nevertheless will often eat it, and this por¬ 
tion of the fruit seems to do them no harm, but the black 
nut is certainly poisonous, and children have sometimes 
been killed who have been so foolish as to eat them. The 
leaves are full of narcotic poison, and are especially dan¬ 
gerous when just beginning to wither. Cattle have often 
died of eating the half faded young shoots thrown to 
them with their litter, and one poor foolish woman ac¬ 
tually caused the death of her three little children by 
giving them boiled Yew leaves, which some ignorant 
person had recommended to her as medicine. 
Among the five stamened, one pistilled flowers, there is a 
numerous division all of which have poisonous qualities 
and some to a most deadly extent. These may be known 
from all the innocent five stamened race by their having 
a round carpel growing above the corolla, and the leaves 
growing alternately on the stem, and they generally are 
of dark lurid colours, although some are extremely beauti¬ 
ful, such for instance as the HENBANE (6), a handsome 
flower, of a pale cream colour, shaded, with purple towai’ds 
the centre, and covered with a net work of purple veins. 
It has a very unpleasant odour, something like laudanum, 
and is soft, downy, and sticky to the touch. It grows 
in waste places, such as road sides and village greens, 
but is not very common. It is useful in medicine as an 
opiate, and is often given under the Latin name, hyoscya- 
mus, to quiet a cough. 
THE THORN APPLE (fig. a) pi. XX, has a blossom like that 
of a convolvulus, white, shaded with purple, and a fruit 
consisting of a thorny husk full of seeds. — It is very 
handsome, and is often found on heaps of waste earth 
thrown out from gardens. It has the same lulling quali¬ 
ties and is sometimes used in medicine. It is a near re¬ 
lation to Tobacco, which is one of the plants of this class, 
and is unfortunately the article most consumed throughout 
the globe. 
The most fatal of all this class is however THE DEADLY 
NIGHTSHADE or Atropa, so named from the Fate of 
Greek fable, whose office it was to cut off the thread of 
life with her shears. — Belladonna, or fair lady, the 
other name, seems to have been given as if to shew that 
“pleasan Isins”, as they appear at first, lead to destruc¬ 
tion, for the plant is not a fair one, in spite of its tall 
luxuriant growth, and purple veined bells. It has strongly 
the air of poison, and the shining black berries look as if 
they were fraught with death. It is not often found wild, 
having perhaps been rooted out, lest children should be 
foolish enough to eat of them. — The effect of them is 
either sleep, or else a strange and miserable waking 
