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chievous tendencies. The acrid milk or sap extracted from the
Euphorbia has, from its poisonous qualities, obtained the name of
Devil’s Milk. The poisonous Puff-balls (Lycoperdon) are called
Devil’s Snuff-boxes, on account of the dust or particles they contain,
which have long borne an ill name. Gerarde says that “ it is very
dangerous for the eies, for it hath been often seene that divers have
beene pore-blinde ever after when some small quantitie thereof
hath beene blowne into their eies.” The Fungus Exidia glandulosa
(Witches’ Butter) is known in Sweden as the Devil’s Butter.
Although the Devil extends his authority over so many
plants, it is satisfactory to know that the St. John’s Wort is a
dispeller of demons (Fuga dmmonmn), and that there is in Russia
a plant called the Devil-chaser. Prof. De Gubernatis tells us
that he has received from the Princess Galitzin Prazorova the
following particulars of this plant, which is known as Certagon.
It grows in meads and woods, is somewhat thorny, and bears a
deep-blue flower. It protects infants from fright, and drives away
the Devil. Sometimes the plant is boiled in water, and the
children are bathed in it. At other times the plant is merely
placed in the cradle. I f mourners are prostrated with grief and
the recollection of the departed one (which is simply a visitation
of the Devil) it is only necessary to hold up a sprig of the mystiq
Certagon, when the excessive grief will be assuaged, and the Devil
will be compelled to flee. The best way to exorcise an evil spirit
from the dead is to sit on the pall, to chew some seeds of Camphor
while combing the hair of the corpse, and finally to wave aloft the
Certagon—the Devil-chaser.
Ro^iouit*, ©eacJP^j (iPP-©meaeel_ pPaiati^,
Prof. De Gubernatis remarks that “ Lhcre are good and bad
herbs, and good and bad plants : the good are the work of Ormuzd,
the bad the work of Ahriman.” All these bad herbs, plants, and
trees, noxious, poisonous, and deadly—the dangerous classes in
the vegetable kingdom—are of evil augury, and belong to the
category of Plants of the Devil.
There are many trees and plants which emit emanations highly
injurious, and in some cases fatal to life. Perhaps the most
notorious of these is the deadly Upas, which rises in the ‘ Valley of
Death’ in Java, where it is said to blight all neighbouring vegetation,
and to cause the very birds that approach it in their flight
to drop down lifeless. No animal can live where its baneful
influence extends, and no man durst approach its pestilential
shade.
The Strychnos Tiente is the plant which yields the Upas Tiente,
one of the Javanese poisons ; it contains strychnia, and is as deadly
as strychnine itself. The Upas Antiar is another Javanese poison—
a bitter, milky juice, which acts violently on the heart.
The noxious exudations of the Manchineel-tree are said to
cause certain death to those who rashly sleep beneath its foliage.
The wonderfully fragrant blossoms of the Magnolia grandiflora
emit so strong a perfume that, when inhaled in the immediate
neighbourhood of a group in flower, it becomes overpowering. -The
Indians will never sleep under Magnolia in blossom.
Linnaeus has mentioned a case in which the odour of the
Oleander, or Rose-bay {Nerium Oleander), proved fatal. The foliage
and flowers of this shrub will exercise a deadly influence on many
quadrupeds: hence it is called in India the Horse-killer, and in
Italy, Ass-bane.
The Elder-tree is reputed to exhale so narcotic a scent when
in flower, that it is unwholesome for animals to rest under its shade;
and it is considered unadvisable to plant one of these trees where
its exhalations can be wafted into a sleeping apartment. On
account of this pungent smell, country people often strike with
Elder-boughs the leaves of fruit-trees and vegetables, in order that
by being impregnated with the scent of the Elder-berries, they may
prove noisome to troublesome insects.
The Jatropha urens, a native of Brazil, is a plant the properties
of which are so noxious that its possession is absolutely fraught
with danger. Not many years ago the Curator of Kew Gardens
was one day reaching over a plant when its fine bristly stings
touched his wrist: the first sensation was a numbness and swelling
of the lip s ; the action of the poison was on the heart, circulation
was stopped, and the unfortunate Curator soon fell unconscious.
A doctor was fetched, who administered antidotes effectually; but
no gardener could afterwards be got to come within arm’s length
of the diabolical plant ; and both it and another specimen, subse-
([iiently introduced, sliortlji afterwards mysterious]}' disappearec
from tlie bouse.
The Nitraria tridenfata, which is b}! some believed to be the
Lotos-tree of the ancients, grows in the Desert of Soussa, near
Tunis, and is called Damouch by the Arabs, who are fully alive to
the semi-intoxicating qualities of its berries, which produce a state
of lassitude similar to the infatuating food of the Lotophagi.
Alex. Pouchkine has given a vivid descripition of the Indian
Antchar, thought to be a variety Aconitum ferox. Growing in a wild
and sterile desert, this Antchar has its roots and the sickly verdure
of its branches steeped in poison. Melted by the mid-day heat,
the poison filters through the plant’s outer skin in clammy drops:
in the evening these become congealed into a transparent gum.
Birds turn aside directly they see this deadly plant; the tiger
avoids i t ; a passing puff of wind shakes its foliage,—the wind
hurries on tainted and infected ; a shower waters for an instant its
drooping leaves, and from its branches forthwith falls a deadly
rain on the burning soil. But a man has made a sign : another
man obeys. The Antchar must be procured. He departs without
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