of England, in waste ground near towns and
villages. The whole herb poisons man,
though it may be eaten without hurt by
cattle. It causes delirium and stupor,
convulsions, even insanity. Two fatal cases are
recorded. Even of this herb the roots have
been eaten in soup for parsnips. Dr. Houlton
relates that they were once eaten, by the
same mistake, for supper in a monastery.
All who had taken any were affected in the
night and during the next day. One monk
got up at midnight and tolled for matins ;
others obeyed the summons ; and of those who
did so some could not read, others repeated
what had not been set down in their breviaries.
The thorn apple has effects so deadly
that in America it has been called the devil's
apple. It is said that thorn apples were
used to produce the prophetic paroxysms at
the Delphian shrine.

In the figwort tribe there is no plant so
dangerous as fox-glove. It is a powerful
and valuable medicine to the physician, but
one of the most perilous of herbs in the hands
of the quack. Its most peculiar effect is that
which it has upon the action of the heart,
reducing to a wonderful degree the number
of its beats.

Mezereon is very dangerous. Its scarlet
berries, bright as currants, shining against
lively green foliage, are apt to tempt a child.
Four or five will produce serious illness, more
may kill. Spurge-laurel is not less dangerous.
A decoction of the root and bark is sometimes
used, and when used, always with great risk,
as a worm-medicine.

The spurges have a juice so hot and acrid
that one might suppose they never would be
eaten by mistake. A boy of six, however,
ate the petty-spurge and died. A boy of fourteen
ate, in thoughtless daring of his school-
fellows, several plants of the sun-spurge, and
died in three hours in distressing sufferings.
Herb Mercury and wild spinach have
also had their victims. Herb Paris has not
yet caused fatal poisoning, but symptoms
caused in a child by eating a few of the
berries as black currants indicate that it has
properties similar to those of deadly nightshade.

Black bryony is sometimes given by quacks
in powder and decoction. One dose
produces death in the most painful form. Where-
ever it grows, children should especially be
warned against eating its scarlet berries.

Daffodils and lilies also swell the list of
poisonous wild-flowers. Even the pleasant odour
of the daffodil and the narcissus causes headache,
if it be breathed for any length of time.
Infants have been dangerously affected by the
mere carrying to the mouth of the flower of
the daffodil, and swallowing some portions of
it. The narcissus is more deadly than the
daffodil, and gets its name from the Greek
word (narké) for stupor or insensibility. It is
unsafe to eat either jonquils or snowdrops.
There is some poison, too, in the wild
hyacinth, and much and deadly poison — of a
sort called veratrin — in the meadow-saffron.
A few years ago, a woman picked up in
Covent Garden Market some bulbs of the
meadow-saffron which a herbalist had
thrown away ; she took them for onions, ate
them, and died shortly afterwards. A man
swallowed some seeds incautiously, and
quickly died. The leaves are avoided by horses
but eaten by deer and cattle, who sometirnes in
the spring, when the juices are most virulent,
die by them. They seem to become wholesome
when dried in hay.

Of the arum, which is called also lords and
ladies, or cuckoo-pint, when it is fresh, all
parts are dangerous. Three children ate some
of the leaves ; their tongues became swollen,
swallowing was difficult, one died in twelve
and one in seventeen days; the third recovered.
The poison, which is very acrid in the roots,
may be dissipated by heat. In the Isle of
Portland, where the arum is abundant, its
roots steeped in water, baked and powdered,
are eaten under the name of Portland
sago.

Of poisoning with yew and yew-berries,
cases are numerous. Wherever there are
yew hedges in gardens frequented by children,
the berries ought to be removed before they
ripen. There is poison in elder flowers, leaves,
and roots ; even the berries, when eaten as
they are found upon the tree, may produce
vomiting and purging.

Sorrel owes its agreeable sharpness to
oxalic acid in the binoxalate of potash wherein
it abounds. It is good in salad, and a few
leaves may be eaten without hurt ; but, serious
illness may result from eating it in quantity.

The same is to be said of the kernels of
stone-fruits, which are flavoured with Prussic
acid. Only a very few are to be eaten without
risk. A little girl, aged five, ate a great
number of the kernels of sweet cherries. Her
brother, a few years older, also ate some.
Next day, the girl was in a stupor, from
which nothing could rouse her. She died
about forty hours after the kernels had been
eaten. The boy was ill for a mouth, and
then recovered.

HOW WE LOST OUR MINISTER.

OUR village is on the seacoast, far from the
main roads and the towns ; we have a
harbour for small fishing smacks, and do a smart
trade in whiting pout and salmon peel, but
we cannot, with strict propriety, be termed
commercial. There is nothing to attract the
great world from their enjoyments and
dissipations in favour of Barnley Combe, except
its natural loveliness ; perhaps our simple
manners may have their charms for such as
have been preyed upon for successive years
by lodging-house keepers of Brighton, who
have been bitten in the face and eyelids down
at Margate, who have given up trying to
persuade themselves that what they smelt at