In Britain the name of Deadly Nightshade is popularly given not to the rare shrub Atropa Belladonna with its dark purple flowers and large black berries, but to the Bitter-sweet or Woody Nightshade with its scarlet berries. The former here provides the central theme in a composition overspread with the sinister presence of Bellona, Goddess of War. Ruin is here-the plant often grows as a wilding among ruined buildings-and Atropos, last of the Fates, who severs the Thread of Life.
