Should you encounter any of the plants in this book, do not treat them lightly. They can kill you. Or cause you unbearable agony. Or land you in jail. Consider yourself warned." Science, history, mystery, and horror intersect in a brilliantly illustrated compendium that explains how certain plants evolved to avoid being eaten--and how their toxic chemicals have been used by humans for medicine, warfare, and sinister acts of foul play. Award-winning science writer Rebecca E. Hirsch shines an informative and entertaining light on Mother Nature's ghoulish garden, from a hallucinogenic fungus linked to the Salem Witch Trials (ergot), to the weed that killed Abe Lincoln's mother (white snakeroot).