pink. Also many useful herbs which are used in medicine, such as peppermint and pennyroyal. One shrub I might have passed without notice, had I not been told to look for it: the leaves were not attractive, nor the flowers, which in colour are of a dusky hue, and by no means beautiful. This plant is rare in England, and very remarkable for the deadly poison which is to be found in its berries. It is for this reason called the deadly nightshade. Poisonous plants, in general, are not pleasing to the eye, and it is doubtless mercifully arranged thus, that little children and the inexperienced may not be tempted to gather them by accident. When the season advanced and summer flowers gave place to autumn fruits, I was pleased in observing the variety of berries in the hedges and coppices. Many were so much alike that there might be some difficulty in distinguishing one from the other; but these were harmless, and though some were better for food than others, yet none were poisonous. The common nightshade has berries of a very transparent red, which may be easily known. The deadly nightshade, or Atropa Belladonna, the most poisonous, and the most to be avoided, bears a large black berry, very peculiar both in form and colour-it is green before it is ripe, and very smooth, black and shining when ripe; it grows with a small circle of green leaves round each berry, and the fruit is scattered over the stalk, not in clusters like most other berries, but singly. I had thought that there could be no danger of such fruit being mistaken for any other. Still it seemed to me that children might gather them to eat as something new and more full of juice than other berries. I asked the cottagers, therefore, if any accidents ever occurred in this way, they said no; they warned the big ones, if they sent them into the wood, and the little ones never went alone. The leaves and the roots of this plant are used in medicine under the name of Belladonna. After having seen the plant, and heard these remarks upon it, I was very much surprised to notice in the newspapers an account of a trial in which a man was charged with selling berries of this deadly nightshade, as good and innocent fruit for tarts, and of having thus caused the

illness of many persons, and the death of a man and a little child. I could scarcely believe that any one accustomed to gather berries for eating, could make such a mistake, but it was very easy to understand how persons living in towns, and scarcely ever seeing the berries that grow wild in the country, should buy any that looked clean and juicy, and would trust to the man who sold them for their being wholesome. The story in the paper was this:

“Maria Parker, the wife of a man who kept a beershop in Whitechapel-road, London, was standing in the shop one Saturday afternoon, when a man came in with two baskets on his arm, one had herbs in it, and the other was filled with berries. He called for a halfpint of beer, and then asked Mrs. Parker to buy some of the berries. She said they looked very nice, and asked what berries they were. The man called them nettleberries, and said that they surpassed black currants and damsons, and were very nice for tarts and puddings, and for making wine. She told him that she was a country woman, but she had never heard of nettle-berries before; but the man seemed to have no hesitation in recommending them; he said he had travelled a long way to obtain the fruit, and that he had sometimes gathered them on the Surrey hills. Mrs. Parker asked her husband's leave, and then purchased a pint for threepence. The following day, Sunday, was the anniversary of her wedding-day; she made a tart with the berries, cutting off the stalks, and adding some slices of apple to mix with them. At dinner time she and her husband ate of the tart, the husband ate very heartily of it. Before the dinner was taken away, a customer came in to pay some money, and brought with him his child, Samuel Jones. This little boy, who was only three years old, looked very anxiously at the tart, and Maria Parker gave him some; Jones, the father, asked her if she knew what she was giving to the child? and she said it was a very nice pie, made of forest fruit. He told her she ought to be very careful what forest fruit she ate, for sometimes it was poisonous; still he allowed the child to eat a piece of it, and then returned home. A few minutes after dinner,

Thomas Parker, the husband, felt very drowsy, his countenance changed colour, the pupils of his eyes became dilated, and he complained of a strange coppery taste in his mouth. He went up stairs to lie down, but when he reached the bedroom, he staggered and fell insensible on the floor. His wife felt ill herself, and sent directly to Mr. Colesworth, chemist, for an emetic to give her husband, and a Seidlitz powder for herself. She tried to give him the emetic, but his teeth were firmly set, and he was quite delirious, and in his delirium he attempted to strike his wife; she began to feel the same coppery taste in her mouth, a tingling in her fingers, and also to become very drowsy. She therefore sent for Mr. Prophit, a surgeon in Church-lane, Whitechapel-road; he ordered cold applications to the man's head, and gave him emetics. On vomiting, he brought up some berries which the surgeon discovered to be the berries of the deadly nightshade. He was bled, but as he grew worse, and his wife also became seriously affected, he sent them both to the London Hospital the same evening, about eight o'clock. The stomach-pump was then applied to Thomas Parker, and amid the contents of the stomach were found about twenty berries of the Belladonna 1, or deadly nightshade. Cold water was applied to the head to endeavour to rouse him from insensibility, and other strong means were used for his recovery; but it was all in vain, he died at nine o'clock on Monday. Maria Parker suffered severely, but as she had eaten less freely of the fatal tart, the means used were more successful, and she was able to attend before the magistrates and give the necessary evidence. The poor little boy, who had so unfortunately partaken of the tart, did not escape. About ten minutes after he had returned home, he was seized; his face became very red and swollen. They took him to a doctor; he gave him an emetic and ordered him to be put in a warm bath, but he became raving mad, and they were obliged to take him to the hospital that evening; he showed the same symptoms as Thomas Parker, and died the following day.

1 Atropa Belladonna.

The police hearing of these circumstances, set out in search of the man who had sold the berries. He was apprehended in Stretton-ground, Westminster, on Thursday the 20th. He was at that time selling blackberries and heathbrooms. On being told the reason that he was taken into custody, he denied ever having been in Whitechapel; and said he had gathered and sold herbs and berries for twenty years, both in the streets and in Spitalfields'-market, and got his living by it. He gathered his herbs mostly in Kent. On reaching Whitechapel with the policeman, he said he knew every turning in it; which seems at variance with his first statement. He appears to have shown no sorrow nor surprise on hearing of the death of Parker and the child; and merely said he had not been able to sell his berries for several days, people telling him that two persons had died from eating poisonous berries. When John Hillyard, (that was the name of the man who sold the berries,) was brought before the magistrate, at the office in Thamesstreet, to answer the charge, five other persons appeared against him, deposing that they had bought berries of him, and had been very ill in consequence. Three of these were postboys. It appears, that as they were on Blackfriars-bridge, Saturday morning, the same on which Parker bought the berries, they heard this man calling out, "Fine ripe berries!" One of them bought a few, and gave some to his companions. Poor fellow! had it not been for his good nature in so doing, he would probably have lost his life. He and the other lads who partook of them were all so ill, that they were obliged to be taken to the hospital; but they recovered in the course of a few days. An old man, John Williams, appeared at the court in a very weak state, looking pale and haggard. He had been induced to purchase one halfpennyworth of the berries, and ate them while going to his work. It was about seven o'clock in the morning. Two hours after, he was taken very ill; he fell asleep, and was insensible; in which state he was discovered, and taken home. He remained in a state of stupor till the next day, and had been very ill ever since. The fifth witness against John Hillyard was John Lambert.

He was only just out of Guy's Hospital, and presented a most lamentable appearance. He had bought the berries of the same man on Blackfriars'-bridge, and became raving mad after eating them, so that when in the hospital they were obliged to shave his head. He was still very weak, and scarcely able to move.

Thus five unfortunate persons, besides Parker and the little boy Jones, had suffered from the deadly effects of these berries of the Belladonna: another woman happily escaped, being warned not to buy any, by one who knew the poisonous nature of the berries. She heard the man calling" Fine ripe berries!" and was just going to buy some, when a young man, who lived in the same house, told her not to buy them, for they were poisonous. He then told John Hillyard, that if he was a countryman he must know the poisonous nature of those berries. He explained to him what they were, and how they grew. The woman did not purchase any, but sent the old man away. Even after this, John Hillyard still went on calling, "Fine ripe berries!" But it was earlier in the day that he had sold them to the postboys and others on Blackfriars'-bridge.

If the old man had done as he ought, he would have returned to Mrs. Parker, and have warned her against the berries. This would have saved the two lives that were lost, as the pie was not eaten till the following day. By doing this, he would also have proved his innocence as to any intentional injury, and such a circumstance would have told well at his trial. But he never seems to have regarded his negligence in the proper light, nor to have felt any sorrow for the death of Parker and of the child. As it was, the magistrate thought it quite necessary to commit the prisoner for trial, and he was remanded to Westminster Bridewell, there to await the sessions. He was afterwards tried for manslaughter, convicted, and punished with imprisonment.

We will hope that the circumstances having been made known, may prevent such fatal accidents in future.