106 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



the bottom of the tube of the corolla, included or exserted ; fila- 

 ments elongated ; anthers not connivent, opening by longitudinal 

 slits. Eruit a membranous capsule, smooth, 2-celled, dehiscing cir- 

 cumscissily by a firm shallow lid. Seeds very numerous, uniform. 



Herbs, often viscous, and with a powerful heavy odour. Leaves 

 alternate, toothed or angulated. Plowers in unilateral scorpioid 

 racemes, yellow or ochreous, sometimes veined with purple. 



The name of this genus of plants comes from the two Greek words, voq (wo«), a 

 sow, and Kvaixoe (Jcuamos), a bean. 



SPECIES I-HYOSCYAMUS NIGER. Linn. 

 Plate DCCCCXXXVI. 

 Rekh. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Yol. XX. Tab. MDCXXIII. Figs. 2, 3. 



Radical leaves in a rosette, stalked, rhomboidal-ovate, sinuate- 

 dentate ; stem-leaves and bracts sessile, and more or less amplex- 

 icaul, oblong, with large spreading teeth. Plowers sub-sessile in 

 the axils of the upper leaves or bracts, in a 2-ranked unilateral 

 scorpioid raceme. Corolla nearly regular. Capsule swollen at the 

 base ; calyx-tube in fruit constricted about the middle. 



Yar. a, genuinus. 



Corolla yellowish-white, veined with dark-purple with a purple 

 eye. 



Yar. 3, pallidus. 



H. pallidus, Kitt. in fVilld. Enum. Hort. Berol. Vol. I. p. 228. 



Plowers wholly pale-yellow, without purple lines. 



On sandy ground, and dry waste places, pastures, and by road- 

 sides. Locally abundant, and generally distributed over England ; 

 rare in Scotland, and not attaining the extreme North of that 

 country. Yar. )3 rare. Esher, Surrey (Mr. H. C. Watson). I once 

 found a specimen near Portobello, Edinburgh. Smith also mentions 

 that it has occurred at Eincham, in Norfolk. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Biennial or Annual. 

 Summer and Autumn. 



Radical leaves very large, soft, flaccid, spreading, on conspi- 

 cuous stalks ; the lamina sometimes 6 or 8 inches long, or even 

 more ; stem-leaves smaller, sessile, and more or less clasping, with 

 large projecting teeth. Elowers numerous, crowded while in flower, 

 but becoming separated in fruit, so as to form a raceme like that 



