BITTER SWEET. 174 
five or six feet. Leaves petioled, ovate, acute, en- 
tire, furnished at the base with two appendages, 
which give them somewhat of'a hastate form. The 
lower and upper leaves are frequently without 
these appendages. The flowers form a loose, nod- 
ding cluster or panicle, shaped like a eyme, and 
taking its origin opposite to a leaf. Calyx of five 
short, purplish, persistent segments. Corolla ro- 
tate, becoming reflexed as it grows old, divided in- 
to five acute segments, which are purple, and 
marked with two whitish dots at the base of each. 
The filaments are much shorter than the anthers, 
and inserted in the short tube of the corolla. An- 
thers yellow, erect, cohering, so as to form a con- 
ical tube around the style. Germ oval; style 
longer than the stamens; stigma simple. The 
berries are oval, of a bright scarlet colour, and 
continue to hang in bunches after the leayes have 
fallen. | 
The taste and smell of the Dulcamara are less 
nauseous than those of many other species of So- 
lanum. Water seems a perfect solvent for its 
most sensible constituents. The chief soluble 
portion seems to be a kind of mucous extractive, 
which is taken up by both water and aleobol, 
though most by the former. The nitrate of mer- 
cury and muriate of tin, gave precipitates from 
