A BOTANICAL RAMBLK. 267 



towards the sea, where the herbage is more scanty, and the pebbles predomi- 

 nate, we shall find a number of interesting plants. This straggling shrub, 

 with flowers like those of a potatoe, its young shoots with an odour of musk, 

 is Solanum Dulcamara, (Common Nightshade, or Bittersweet, as its Latin 

 name implies;) it belongs to a most dangerous and suspicious family, the 

 Solanacece, famous for their narcotic properties; the Henbane, Hijoscyamus 

 niger, Atropa belladonna, Tobacco, Nicotiana, the edible Tomato, and Egg 

 Plant, both Solanums; the potatoe, etc., are of this order; these however 

 are only wholesome when deprived of their poison by heat. The juice of A. 

 Belladonna is well known to produce dilatation of the pupil, and the leaf 

 applied to the face relieves the tooth-ache. The fruit of Solanum dulcamara 

 and S. nigrum, to be found on rubbish everywhere, are very poisonous: one 

 species of Solanum; the Burahura, in Demerara, is said to be an antidote to 

 the bite of the Rattle-snake. 



But here is Geranium Rohertianum, (Herb Robert;) it is the small variety 

 B of Smith, and very pretty it is with its red stems, elegant leaves, and 

 purple flowers. Geranium dissectum and molle are also plentiful, but chiefly 

 on the banks near the road, together with Erodium cicutarium, (Stork's 

 Bill,) with finely-divided pinnatifid leaves; a plant of the same natural order 

 Geraniaceoe, so much cultivated by florists; — the ornament of every garden 

 and cottage window. That almost microscopic plant is Myosotis collina, a 

 small Forget-me-not or Scorpion Grass, distinguished by its brilliant blue 

 flowers that do not expand till by the unrolling of the raceme each is in its 

 turn brought into a perpendicular position. It is of the order Boraginacece, 

 to which also belongs this rough-looking plant, not yet in bloom, JEchiiim 

 vulgare, (Viper's Bugloss;) it will soon decorate the beach with its racemes 

 of handsome flowers, at first reddish purple, then turning to a brilliant blue 

 and sometimes white. The Gynoglossum officinale, (Hound's Tongue,) belongs 

 to the same order; it is found nearer the road and on the banks in great 

 plenty; you may know it by its dingy purple and funnel-shaped blossoms, its 

 fcetid musty smell, its soft downy elliptical leaves, and its height about two 

 feet. 



The Borage, [Borago officinalis,) gives its name to the order. I have ob- 

 served it in the neighbourhood of Cosham, near Portsmouth; it is a rare 

 plant, and partial to calcareous soils, though not found in this district. It 

 was formerly used as an ingredient in a sort of summer punch, called cool 

 tankard. This dark shining plant, with its dense heads of green flowers, Beta 

 vulgaris, (Common Beat,) that seems to rejoice in the barren soil, belongs to 

 the order Ghenopodioe, of which there are many species in the neighbourhood 

 of Brighton; for instance, a little further on, covering the mud of the harbour 

 with its white powdery branches and leaves, is Atriphx portulacoides, on the 

 leaves of which grows the sea-weed Ehodomela scorpioides, and in its neigh- 

 bourhood is plenty of Salicornia herhacea, and the rarer species of S. radicans 

 — the two Glasswovts: they are sometimes pickled for Samphire, (Crithmum 



