444 SOLANACE.E. 



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, and 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 Henbane, is a stout herba- 

 ceous plant, with sticky, foetid leaves, and cream-coloured 

 flowers veined with purple it is a powerful narcotic, 

 and in skilful hands scarcely less valuable than opium. 

 Datura Stramonium (Thorn-apple) bears large, white, 

 trumpet-shaped 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 a crimson berry enclosed in the, 

 enlarged calyx, which after exposure to the wet, decays, 

 leaving the berry hanging within a case of network. 

 The genus Capsicum affords Cayenne pepper, which is 

 prepared by grinding the dried seed-vessels with their 

 contents. Finally, Lycopersicum produces Tomatoes or 

 Love Apples, which are much used in making sauce. 



1. SOLANUM (Nightshade). Corolla wheel-shaped, 5- 

 cleft, the segments spreading or reflexed ; anthers open- 

 ing by 2 pores, at the summit ; berry roundish, with 

 2 or more cells. (Name of doubtful origin.) 



2. ATROPA (Deadly Nightshade). Corolla bell-shaped, 

 with 5 equal Jobes ; stamens distant ; berry of two cells. 

 (Name from Atropos, one of the Fates, who was supposed 

 to cut the thread of human destiny.) 



3. HYOSCYAMUS (Henbane). Corolla funnel-shaped, 

 with 5 unequal lobes ; capsule 2 -celled, closed by a lid. 

 (Name in Greek signifying Hoofs-bean.) 



