I did a little research of my own into
your unauthorized botany experiment.
Apparently, in 1871, a strange contagion
struck the Morelly Settlement,
and 200 people died almost over night. A priest,
who witnessed the scene
left a diary. His last entries described how the
settlers began acting out
of character. He claimed a local flower was to blame.
"On God's green earth,
this flower was the thief in the temple, (the initiator of all sins?)
the silent
temptress that, with a single
sneeze, brought out the basest instincts in men
and drove them to violence."