FLOWERING PLANTS. 135 
Soianum Dulcamara, L. Woody Nightshade. Bittersiveet. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Generally distributed throughout the island, and not uncommon. 
Both the glabrous and the downy forms occur, the latter being the 
‘var. fomentosum of Koch. The var., marinum, Bab., with cordate 
(not hastate) leaves, is the prevailing form on the shores of the 
lowlands. 
All the names of this plant—French //ouce-ameére, Latin Luda- 
mara, German /ittersiiss, and English Aztfersweet—allude to the 
rind of the stalk, which, as Turner observes, ‘ when it is first tasted, 
is bitter, and afterwards is sweet.’ This species is often erroneously 
called the Deadly Nightshade, instead of the Woody Nightshade: 
the former name properly belongs to the following plant. 
*Atropa belladonna, L. . Deadly Nightshade. 
Extinct 
here is evidence that this plant occurred here towards the close 
of the eighteenth century, by the preservation in Gosselin’s old 
herbarium of a specimen labelled ‘Near the seashore at foot of 
Mont Crevel.’ And I find it marked ‘ Paradis, Guernsey,’ in an 
annotated copy of the /Vora Sarnica which formerly belonged to 
Major H. Smith, a botanist resident in the island about the year 
1860. Kabington records it for Jersey only. 
This is perhaps the most dangerous of all British plants: its fruit 
is tempting in appearance, sweetish, and without any remarkable or 
repulsive flavour: so that children have often eaten it with fatal 
results. It occasions a deep and deadly stupor, and it is said that 
‘even half a berry has proved sufficient to cause death. 
Hyoscyamus niger, L. Flenbane 
Native. First found: Gosselin, 1788. 
Very rare: now nearly extinct. Principally at Uancresse, where 
a plant or two may be found each year, but I have reason to believe 
they are intentionally dug out, perhaps by the owners of the sheep 
that graze on the Common, for fear of poisoning Farmyard at 
Fontenelles (v1.) one plant in 1899 (Andrews). ‘Two or three in a 
garden, Burnt Lane, in 1900 (Luff). A specimen in Gosselin’s 
herbarium is marked ‘near the Long Store and at Lancresse.’ - I am 
informed that the Henbane was by no means rare on Lancresse 
Common twenty years ago. 
Called in the patuis of Guernsey and of the northern parts of 
Normandy Hannebanne, a word closely allied to our Hendane. The 
common French name is /usguiame. Commentators are now pretty 
well agreed that the liquid poison called Aedenon in Hamlet, i. 5, was 
not Henbane. Most probably, however, it was ‘the insane root, 
that takes the reason prisoner’ of J/acbeth, i. 3, Henbane having 
been described as far back as the time of Dioscorides as causing 
