ATROPA MANDRAGORA, ORD. XII. Solanaceee, seu Luridc. 235 
Flowers whitish, each standing upon a simple stalk, or scapus, which 
rises from the crown of the root. Calyx qninquifid; segments 
pointed, persistent. Corolla bell-shaped; tube very hits limb 
divided into five acute spreading segments. Filaments five, taper- 
ing, hairy, inserted at the base of the corolla, at the top diverging, ° 
and furnished with erect yellow anther. Germen round: style 
filiform, of the length of the filaments, and crowned with a round 
stigma, Fruita large round two-celled berry, of an orange colour, 
containing many kidney-shaped seeds. 
{ts flowers appear in March and April. 
This plant is a native of the southern parts of Europe: it is not 
a stranger to our English gardens, in which it was cultivated by 
pues in weed 
and absurd st formerly told of the Mandrake 
— not now for a moment impose upon the most credulous and 
ignorant: the great resemblance of some of the roots to the human 
form, the danger of taking them out of the ground, and their sur- 
prising effects, were al] the invention of charlatanical knavery and 
imposture.° 
The roots of Mandrake vary both in form and colour, being 
either divided or entire, and externally brown or black; hence 
they have been distinguished into male and female: the internal 
substance is white, and to the taste somewhat viscid, bitter, and 
nauseous. 
All the ancient writers on Mandrake represent this root to be an 
anodyne and soporific, but in large doses it is said to excite maniacal | 
2 Hort. Kev. 
* Ferunt has prestantissimas radices ex urina suspensi hominis sub partibulo mo« 
ricntis irrigatas tales efformari, & ideo adeo raras esse, easdem non sine vite pericule 
manu effodi, quapropter eas primum circumfediendas esse, ita ut minimum ex ra- 
dice terra sit conditum, deinde ab ca religandum canem, a quo postea fugiente radix 
extrahitur & sequitur, sed non adeo longe, quandoquidem statim atque effossa est, 
canis moritur: nullum postea accipientibus amplius metum esse, imo summe pro- 
ficuas esse, maleficia & infortunia quecunque avertendo, & felicitates quascunque 
desiderabiles afferendo. Geoff. l.c. See also Matthicl, and others, 
