Just like horror movie anthologies, British Library's Tales of the Weird series proves that a well-constructed story doesn't necessarily need much room to be effective. I picked Evil Roots as my first read back in November (review of my December read is a couple of posts back), because I'd never thought "botanical gothic" was a thing and it seemed so intriguing. All I could think of was the Finnish Moomin TV show that has a creepy plant attacking the characters. Short stories, though? Crickets.

As this collection shows, dangerous plants that seem to have a life of their own and people who make use of the deadly properties of plants are excellent material for horror and gothic. Butcher gets a little spoiler-y in the introductions, so I recommend reading the stories first, but I can't recall that any of the stories weren't worth the read. My favorites:

The Ash Tree by M. R. James (1904): Sir Richard Fell inherits a house with a dark past and a creepy tree. Made me feel itchy.

The Voice in the Night by William Hope Hodgson (1906): On a dark night, a rowboat approaches a schooner asking help. The man in the boat can't be seen, but he sounds strange when he starts telling his story.

Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant by Howard R. Garis (1905): I have a thing for meat-eater plants. I had a thriving venus flytrap a couple of years ago, but then I went on holiday and my mom accidentally killed it; RIP George. Garis is best known as a children's author, and although this story has a more comical bent to it and simply has a gigantic pitcher plant, I really liked it.

The Moaning Lily by Emma Vane (1935): The protagonist enters flower shows and becomes obsessed with a lily that has a mouth and moans. Bizarre and a little body horror-ish which is always nice.

The Flowering of the Strange Orchid by H. G. Wells (1894): Tackles the topic of exotic plant collecting and didn't change my opinion about orchids being creepy (my parents have orchids; should I warn them?).