210 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



spots in a ring at the base, or in the middle, of the shiny violet 

 corolla below each segment which serve as honey-guides, and then 

 strokes the tips of the anthers with its labellse. The stamens are 

 blackish-purple, inserted on the tube of the corolla. The anthers are 

 yellow, and form a sub-conical tube round the pistil, with a pore at the 

 end. The greenish knobs may be pierced and sucked by insects. The 

 style is longer than the stamens, the stigma blunt and simple. The 

 plant is visited by pollen-collecting Bombi and pollen-feeding Syrphidse. 



The berry, containing many kidney-shaped, tapered seeds, is dis- 

 persed chiefly by falling ripe on the ground in winter, but occasionally 

 is eaten by birds and man. The seeds are pitted and rough, white, 

 cartilaginous. 



The plant is a sand plant growing in sand soil; or it may grow 

 in saline soil by the sea-coast, when it is a halophyte, but it usually 

 prefers a sanely loam with some humus in it. 



Bittersweet is infested, like the potato, to which genus it belongs, 

 with a fungus, Phytophthora infestans, potato disease. Several beetles 

 infest it, Pria dulcamara, Meligethes incanus, Crepidodera ventralis, 

 Epitrix pubescens, Psylliodes affinis, P. dulcamara ; 2 moths, Gelechia 

 costella, Acrolepia pygmaana; and a Heteropterous insect, Cymus 

 glandicolor. 



Solanum, Pliny, is the Latin name for this or a similar plant. Dul- 

 camara, Dodona^us, is Latin for Bittersweet, which is so called because 

 the bark is first bitter then sweet. 



The following are some of the names by which Bittersweet is also 

 known : Aw'f 'ood, Belladonna, Blue Bindweed, Bittersweet, Deadly 

 Nightshade, Dogwood, Dwale, Fellon-wood, Fellonwort, Mad Dog's 

 Berries, Bittersweet Nightshade, Wood Nightshade, Poison-berry, 

 Poison Flower, Poisonous Tea Plant, Pushion Berry, Robin-in-the- 

 Hedge, Skaw-coo, Snake-berry, Snake's Poison-food, Sweet Bitter, 

 Terrididdle or Terrydivle, Tether Devil. The name Fellonwort is 

 explained by Coles thus : " The leaves or berries stamped with musty 

 bacon, applyecl to that joynt of the finger that is troubled with a felon, 

 hath been found to be very sucessful for the curing of the same ". 



In mediaeval times it was used in witches' potions as charms and 

 spells: 



" And I ha been plucking plants among 

 Hemlock, Henbane, Adder's Tongue, 

 Nightshade, Moonwort, Hibbard's Bane; 

 And twice by the dogs was like to be ta'en ". 



Ben Jonson, Masque of Queens. 



