Death in the Garden

May 21, 2018
Gardener and lecturer Brown offers a hokey reference guide to poisonous plants that’s heavier on entertainment than education. Brown begins with short overviews of different aspects of poisonous plants, including a chapter on the use of poisoned clothing in folklore, the properties of poisonous plants, and literary references to poison. His five-page history of poisons only skims the surface, merely nodding toward the use of poisoning in the Roman Empire, when assassination by toxins in food and drink was not uncommon. The bulk of the book contains profiles of different varieties of deadly flora with quirky stories of fatal uses. Readers learn that monkshire, for example, was used as recently as 2009 by a jilted lover in Britain to poison her former beau’s meal in what became known as the Curry Murder. The myth around mandrake, a plant that appears in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, is that screams can be heard when it’s pulled from the ground. The entry on basil, which Brown admits is not actually poisonous, recounts a popular Italian folktale about a young girl who buries her lover’s head underneath a basil plant. Readers who enjoy plants and offbeat tales will find Brown’s book a happy mix, but those seeking a more systematic or scientific guide should look elsewhere.