276 HYOSCYAMUS. [ctASS V. ORDER I. 



shaped ; the limh oblique, somewhat unequal, five lohed. Capsule 



ovate, furrowed on each side, swelled at the base, contracted 



above, and opening with a transverse aperture. Seeds numerous. 



— Named from v^, vo^, a Hoc/ ; and Yiva.iJ.oi;, a bean ; so named 



because its fruit bears some resemblance to a bean, and hogs are 



said to eat it as a medicine. 



1. H. ni'ger, Linn. (Fig. 355.) common Henbane. Leaves ovate- 



oblong, sinuated, amplexicaul above, petiolated below ; flowers nearly 



sessile. 



English Botany, t. 591.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 316.— Hooter, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 110. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 181. 



Root tapering. Whole plant more or less profusely clothed with 

 soft viscid hairs, and of a foetid odour. Stem from one to two feet 

 high, round, simple, or branched, very leafy ; the lower leaves on short 

 footstalks, the upper sessile and embracing the stem, large, alternate, 

 ovate-oblong, pinnatifid, or deeply sinuated with a broad mid-rib, and 

 small lateral veins, mostly very hairy. Injforescence a terminal leafy 

 recurved raceme. Flowers on short stalks from the axis of the floral 

 leaves, numerous, but only a few blown at one time. Calyx tubular, 

 swelling below, veined with dark purplish veins, the limb five cleft. 

 Corolla funnel-shaped, the ttibe short, cylindrical, the limb five lobed, 

 deeply divided, one segment broader than the rest, a pale sulphur 

 colour, beautifully pencilled with dark purple veins. Stamens inserted 

 into the tube of the corolla, of unequal lengths. Anthers purpleish. 

 Capsule ovate, somewhat compressed with a longitudinal furrow on 

 each side, closely enveloped with the enlarged tube of the calyx, 

 bellying below, contracted into a neck above, which falls off" trans- 

 versely like a lid, and exposes the two cells within. Seeds numerous, 

 obovate, dotted, abounding with oil. 



Habitat. — Waste rubbishy places, especially in a chalky or lime- 

 stone soil ; not uncommon. 

 Annual ; flowering in June and July. 



Henbane is a narcotic plant, and when it is taken in any considerable 

 quantity is, like opium, quickly poisonous to man and most animals. 

 Swine are said to eat it with impunity; hence it has in some places the 

 name of Hog-weed, but if they eat it in too great a quantity, it proves 

 also poisonous to them. On a village green, near Worksop, Notting- 

 hamshire, this plant used to grow abundantly, and was called by the 

 villagers Hog-weed, from the pigs eating it when no other animals 

 would ; but a number of these pigs occasionally dying from eating too 

 much of this plant, they took the means of further preventing their 

 loss, by destroying every year all the plants they could meet with; now 

 scarcely one is to be met with, and the apothecary is obliged 

 to seek elsewhere for his supply of this medicine. Goats and sheep 

 will eat it, but very sparingly. 



