BLACK NIGHTSHADE 37 



Observations on the Seasons of Planting and gathering of 

 our English Simples, with Directions how to preserve them 

 in their Compositions or otherwise. A work of such 

 a Refined and Useful Method that the Arts of Physick 

 and Chirurgerie are so clearly laid open, that Apothecaries, 

 Chirurgions, and all other ingenuous Practitioners, may 

 from our own Fields and Gardens, best agreeing with our 

 English Bodies, on emergent and sudden occasions com- 

 pleatly furnish themselves with cheap, easie, and wholesome 

 Cures for any part of the Body that is ill-afFected. For 

 the Herbarists greater benifit there is annexed a Latin and 

 English Table of the several names of Simples ; With 

 another more particular Table of the Diseases, and their 

 Cures, treated of in this so necessary Work. By William 

 Coles, Herbarist." This is indeed a noble title-page. 

 The edition that came under our notice was published 

 in the year 1657. 



BLACK NIGHTSHADE (Solanum Nigrum) 



The black nightshade, in botanical nomenclature the 

 Solanum nigrum, is a very near relative of the woody 

 nightshade, but instead of rambling for yards over the 

 hedges it is content to remain humbly on the ground, while 

 its flowers, similar in form to those of its big brother, are 

 white. It is a common annual weed on cultivated ground, 

 springing up on the margins of fields. The flowers grow 

 in considerable clusters and are succeeded by the berries ; 

 these are globular in form, at first green, but ultimately 

 turning a dense black. The plant is more powerful in 

 its action than the woody nightshade, and possesses potent 



