ri9>6 NOTES ox THE COMMON NIGHTSHADE, 



In a letter to Sir Joseph Hooker in 1864 (42a), Mr. W. S. M. 

 D'Urban, F.L.S., states that ^'JVicandra phi/saloides and Solanum 

 nigrum are abundant in British Kaffraria in gardens. The 

 soldiers stationed in the colony often eat the black berries of the 

 latter, and they appear to be innocuous." Then we have reports 

 from Messrs. W. Kyle, Inspector of Stock, and Graham Mitchell, 

 in relation to the mortality among Mr. Button's cattle at Broad- 

 meadows, in Victoria; also a report from Mr. W. Johnston, 

 Analytical Chemist, on the analysis of the stomach of one of the 

 dead cows; and from Mueller upon the properties of the plant to 

 which the deaths are attributed. All these reports agree in the 

 opinion that the mortality is owing to another form of poisoning, 

 caused by the feeding on S. iiigrmn, commonly known as 

 "Annual Nightshade." In a further report, Mueller (62) pub- 

 lished the following remarks, together with a figure of the plant : 

 "the herb which produced poisonous effect on the cattle of 

 Broadmeadows is the Solanum nigrum, called in Britain the 

 'Aimual Nightshade'." It is a cosmopolitan plant, since ancient 

 times known as poisonous, and mentioned under the name of 

 Strychnos along with Atropa belladonna in the writings of 

 Dioskorides already, it belonging, indeed, with the Belladonna, 

 Madragora, and Stramonium, to the same Order of plants 

 (Solaneae). The most active principle of Solanum nigrum is a 

 glucoside (Solanin), and this is most strongly developed in the 

 unripe berries. The plant, however, acts not with the dreadful 

 intensity of the deadly Nightshade {Atropa belladonna), but it is 

 far more commonly dispersed, and disseminates itself with celerity, 

 particularly on road-sides, waste places, in gardens, &c. It 

 being, however, an annual, it can be readily enough destroyed b}^ 

 weeding prior to its ripening its berries. The solanin produces 

 paralysis of the extremities prior to death when consumed in 

 quantity." 



Bailey and Gordon (7) made the following statement about the 



plant: — " Small Black Nightshade (*S'o/«>i?*m 9U(7?'?/.m) 



White flowers are succeeded by usually black berries, but in the 

 more downy plant often greenish; this latter form has often a 



