DEADLY NIGHTSHADE 211 



It was held to be a plant of ill omen, of which Gerarde says: " If 

 you will follow my counsel, deal not with the same in any case, and 

 banish it from your gardens, and the use of it also, being a plant so 

 furious and deadly, for it bringeth such as have eaten thereof into a 

 dead sleep, wherein many have died ". When dried the shoots are 

 used for skin diseases. The berries are poisonous, causing vomiting. 

 The roots smell like the potato, but are bitter when chewed. The 

 leaves have been used for scurvy and rheumatism. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



223. Solanum Dulcamara, L. Shrubby, woody, climbing, leaves 

 cordate, upper hastate, flowers purple, with two green spots at the base 

 of each segment, drooping, anthers yellow, united to form a cone, 

 berries scarlet, poisonous. 



Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna, L.) 



This is one of those southern plants which rarely appear in the 

 deposits containing seeds of ancient plants. The present range of 

 Deadly Nightshade in the N. Temperate Zone is south of Denmark 

 in Europe, N. Africa, and it is introduced in North America. In 

 Great Britain it occurs in S. Wilts, Hants, W. Sussex; in the Thames 

 province, except in Essex; Anglia, except in E. Suffolk, Norfolk, 

 Hunts; in the Severn province, except in Worcester, Salop, Flint, 

 West Lanes; in the Humber province, except in S.E. Yorks ; in the 

 Tyne province, except in Westmorland. It is probably indigenous 

 on chalk and limestone, being often naturalized near ruins, from West- 

 morland to the south coast. In Scotland it is found near houses. It 

 is native in Ireland and the Channel Islands, in so far as it can be 

 called native anywhere. 



The habitat of this plant is undoubtedly artificial in the majority of 

 cases, e.g. in quarries, along railway banks, &c. Watson says: "This 

 plant possibly may be indigenous in some of the chalk or limestone 

 districts. The roots are long lasting, and the seedling plants spring 

 up freely in gardens; peculiarities which tend to establish the plant 

 in localities to which it may originally have been carried by human 

 hands. The localities on record for it afford not a few instances 

 in illustration of the delusive manner in which superficial botanists 

 have endeavoured to palm off the artificial as if genuinely indigenous 

 localities." 



The stems are herbaceous, stout, numerous, branched, often purple, 

 glandular above. The leaves are stalked, egg-shaped, entire, smooth, 



