NIGHTSHADE TRIBE 205 



into Ireland by the colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, who 

 brought it from Virginia in 1586. It was first planted on Sir Walter 

 Raleigh's estate at Youghall. near Cork, and was cultivated for food 

 in that country long before its value was known in England. Its 

 leaves and berries are narcotic, but its tubers contain no noxious 

 matter, abounding in an almost tasteless starch, on which account 

 it is less liable to cloy on the palate than any other vegetable food 

 except bread. 5. melon gena (the Egg-plant), a common greenhouse 

 plant, is remarkable for bearing a large berry of the size and colour 

 of a pullet's egg. 5. dulcamara (Nightshade, or Bittersweet), a 

 common English plant, with purple and yellow flowers, has narcotic 

 leaves and scarlet berries, which possess the same property. S. nigra 

 a smaller species, a common weed in England and most other coun- 

 tries except the coldest, has white flowers and black berries. It is 

 narcotic to a dangerous degree. Atropa belladonna, a stout herba- 

 ceous plant, with dingy, purple, bell-shaped flowers, is the Deadly 

 Nightshade, so called from the poisonous nature of every part of 

 the plant, especially the berries, which are large, black, and shining, 

 and of a very attractive appearance. Its juice possesses the singular 

 property of dilating the pupil of the eye, on which account it is 

 extensively used by oculists when operations are to be performed, 

 and by some ladies, who persuade themselves that it adds to their 

 beauty, from which latter use it has received its specific name. 

 The Mandrake (Mandragora officinalis) was anciently thought to 

 possess miraculous properties. It was said to shriek when taken 

 from the ground, and to cause the instant death of any one who 

 heard its cries. The person who gathered it, therefore, always 

 stopped his ears with cotton, or harnessed a dog to the root, who 

 in his efforts to escape uprooted the plant and instantly fell dead. 

 The forked root was then trimmed so as to resemble the human 

 form, a berry being left to represent the head. The fruit is eatable. 

 Tobacco is the foliage of several species of Nicotiana, a violent poison 

 when received into the stomach, though commonly employed in 

 other ways without apparent ill effects. Hyoscyamus niger, or Hen- 

 bane, is a stout herbaceous plant, with sticky, foetid leaves and 

 cream-coloured flowers veined with purple ; it is a powerful narcotic, 

 and in skilful hands is scarcely less valuable than opium. Datura 

 Stramonium (Thorn-apple) bears large white trumpet-shapec 

 flowers and prickly seed-vessels ; it is also a dangerous poison, 

 though employed with good effect in several nervous and other 

 disorders, especially asthma. Physalis Alkekengi is the Winter 

 Cherry, remarkable for bearing an orange-coloured berry in the 

 enlarged calyx of the same hue. An improved form, P. Franchetti, 

 is largely grown for the sake of its sprays of large orange calyces, 

 which resemble miniature Japanese lanthorns, and are extremely 

 decorative. Another species of Physalis, known as the Cape Goose- 

 berry, is extensively grown in South Africa for the sake of its fruit, 



