NIGHTSHADE TRIBE 271 



is covered with long, slender, clammy hairs, the large flowers are arranged in 

 one-sided clusters. They are dingy yellow, marked usually, but not always, 

 with hu'id purplish-brown veins, and with purple anthers, expanding from 

 June to August, and diffusing a most disagreeable odour. The plant grows 

 on waste lands, sometimes on the heap of refuse near a dwelling, sometimes 

 among the lowly graves of the churchyard, now and then on some bank by 

 the wayside, or on some tall sea-cliff'. The two-celled capsules enclosed in 

 the calyx are covered by a lid, which falls off when the seeds are ripe, and we 

 may sometimes see them in winter macerated by rain and dew, and with little 

 left save a network of woody fibres. The capsule is shaped like a bean, and as 

 swine are said to eat the plant, it is well known by the name of Hog's Bean, 

 and is also sometimes called Black Henbane. The French term it Jusquiame ; 

 the Germans, Bilsenkraut ; the Dutch, Bilsenskruid ; the Italians, Giusquiamo : 

 the Spaniards, Beleno. 



The Henbane is powerfully narcotic, and when taken in any quantity is 

 poisonous to man and to most animals, though both goats and sheep will take 

 a small portion of its foliage, and swine eat it with impunity. No other 

 animals will touch it, and very few of the insect race ever approach its flower 

 or leaf for food. The foliage is the parb used in the preparation of the 

 valuable medicinal narcotic which is procured from this plant, and so often 

 administered to the worn and sleepless sufferer ; but the seeds are also used. 

 Lightfoot mentions that a man who ate a few of these seeds became insensible 

 and lost the use of his limbs ; but they do not seem at all times and with all 

 constitutions to prove so poisonous. Sir J. E. Smith and Professor Martyn 

 both state that they have eaten them without injury, and country children so 

 often play with these seeds that if they were in all cases so noxious, we should 

 certainly more frequently hear of serious consequences. The leaves are often 

 smoked in villages to allay toothache, but the practice is an unsafe one. 

 Anodyne necklaces, made of pieces of the root rounded and strung together, 

 are sometimes worn round the necks of infants to facilitate the process of 

 dentition. Pallas mentions that the seeds of the Purple-flowered Siberian 

 Henbane make, when roasted and infused, an excellent substitute for coffee ; 

 and the seeds of another species (//. datora) are also roasted for the same pur- 

 pose b}'- the Arabs, though in this case the beverage is intoxicating. 



3. Nightshade {Soldnum). 



1. Woody Nightshade, or Bitter-sweet {S. dulcamara). — Stem 

 shrubby ; leaves egg-shaped and heart-shaped ; upper leaves halberd-shaped 

 and eared ; flowers in drooping clusters ; perennial. This plant, which is in 

 some cases quite smooth, in others more or less hairy, is to be found in many 

 of our hedges, especially such as are near streams. The glistening scarlet 

 berries which hang on its boughs are, during October and November, far 

 more conspicuous than the flowers of June and July, The blossoms are lurid 

 purple, with two green spots at the base of each segment, and the yellow 

 anthers are united into a pointed cone. The clusters hang opposite to the 

 leaves, and the latter are dull green ; while the straggling woody stems grow 

 a,mong the bushes, and are often eight or ten feet in length. The plant has 



