Indeed, belladonna had fared much better in medieval times as its proximity to ruins indicates.
Nevertheless, two other areas of discourse were working to revise belladonna's wholly evil reputation in popular culture as a botanical scourge and femme fatale.
What, then, accounts for the late addition of belladonna and for the attribution of a meaning that undercuts the very notion of a "language"?
The most important area of discourse that assisted in redeeming belladonna's reputation participated in the sentimental tradition, but expressed a burgeoning interest in plants for plants' sake.
The dictionary, of course, as a resource for gardeners, would naturally tend to privilege horticultural species; but this does not fully account for its rough treatment of belladonna.
Take a thing like belladonna; none can be got in this country.
Both consultants reported that the treatment followed well recognised lines and consisted primarily of excellently planned rehabilitation and physical re-education together with administration of drugs of the belladonna group.
At least one 19th-century eclectic medicine journal explained how to prepare a belladonna tincture for direct administration to patients.
