DEADLY NIGHTSHADE 213 



Deadly Nightshade is largely a sand plant living on a sand soil, or 

 may be found on chalk. 



A beetle, Crepidodera atropa, feeds upon it, and a moth, the 

 Dotted Clay (Agrotis baja], 



Atropa, Linnaeus, is from the Greek Atropos, one of the Fates who 

 cut the thread of life, in reference to its deadly poisonous nature; and 

 Belladonna, Mathiolus, means beautiful lady. 



It is called Banewort, Belladonna, Naughty Man's Cherry, Daft- 

 berries, Deadly Nightshade, Deaths-herb, Dwale, Deadly Dwale, 

 Dway-berries, Jacob's Ladder, Mad, Manicon, Mekilwort, Great 

 Morel, Sleeping Nightshade. It is called Daft-berries because the 

 berries cause giddiness, and Dwale. 



" The frere with his fisik, this folk hath enchaunted, 

 And doth men drink dvvale that men dredeth no synne ". 



Piers Ploii'iuan. 



Dwale means opiate, that which dulls. Manicon is so referred to in 

 Hudibras : 



" Bewitch Hermetic men to run 

 Stark staring mad with manicon ". 



It used to be called Solamim somniferum, or Sleeping Nightshade. 



In Bohemia they superstitiously believe it a plant of the devil, who 

 watches it, but may be drawn from it on Walpurgis Night by letting 

 loose a black hen, after which he will run. In Italy it was used by 

 women to give lustre to the eyes. The berries are sweet and poisonous. 

 The leaves are dried and used as a drug. It is an anodyne for neu- 

 ralgia, and enlarges the pupil of the eye, and is used for ophthalmic 

 complaints. There is a legend that the berries of Dwale were mixed 

 with the wine of the Danes who came with Sweno, by the Scotch 

 when they held a truce, and that the latter afterwards fell on the Danes. 

 The plant is narcotic. Goats feed on it. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



224. Atropa Belladonna, L. Stem stout, branched, leaves ovate, 

 flowers purple, campanulate, drooping, axillary, on short peduncles, 

 berries black, poisonous. 



