11 OCTOBER 1940, Page 11

More Herbs •

A famous Alpine garden has been converted in this war, as in the last, into an intensive plot for the production of belladonna. This is one example of the value that may be extracted from herbs, or poisonous growths. Which herb to grow, however, needs special enquiry. The needs vary from time to time, but in peace-time as well as in war-time there is an opening for profitable herb growing. On the subject of belladonna I do not remember ever to have seen in the hedges quite so many berries of the woody nightshade, and some strings of the red berries shine as high up in the branches as if they belonged to the white bryony or other climbing plant proper. The species is as common as the deadly nightshade, so-called, is rare. Both this and the bryony are frequently known as deadly nightshade by country people, whose botanical knowledge, though extensive, is often also peculiar. How afraid they are of all mushrooms, except Agaricus campestris