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In "Rappaccini's Daughter," Hawthorne tells the tale of a botanist who has raised his daughter as a rare flower in a clinically-controlled setting. The protagonist, a young suitor named Giovanni, notes that just as Dr. Rappaccini avoids handling his exotic plants (and it is true that some plants are damaged by contact with the oils in human skin), Beatrice goes out of her way to touch and caress them. Rappaccini even gives over to Beatrice …

…buzz around her fall dead at her feet, and regular flowers wilt in her hands. And they are confirmed when Giovanni discovers that the mere touch of her hand has stained his wrist, like the pressing of the petal of a flower. As he spends more and more time with Beatrice, Giovanni becomes not only immune to her deadly fumes, but begins to turn poisonous himself; soon he, too, can kill insects with his breath.