So shines the glow-fly, when the sun retires, 

 And gems the night-air with phosphoric fires." 



Darwin. 



Bright the Nasturtium glows, and, late at eve, 



Light, lambent, dances o'er its sleepless bed. 



Biblake. 



The Tropseolum has a calyx of one leaf, five-cleft, 

 slightly spreading, acute, coloured, deciduous, with a necta- 

 riferous spur behind. Five unequal petals, roundish, insert- 

 ed between the segments of the calyx; the two uppermost 

 sessile; three lower, with oblong fringed claws. 



Darwin observes, that " The nectary grows from what 

 is supposed to be the calyx; but this calyx is coloured, and, 

 perhaps, from this circumstance, of its bearing the nectary, 

 should rather be esteemed a part of the corolla." 



The seeds are hot and pungent, much used for pickles: 

 and the flowers are often intermixed with sallad herbs, both 

 for ornament and flavour. 



There is a double-flowered perennial variety of this spe- 

 cies, common in green-houses, and readily increased by cut- 

 tings. 



NETTLE. 

 Urtica. 



Urtica, derived from Uro, to burn, or sting, in allusion 

 to the property which our common nettles are known to pos- 

 sess. 



Nettle, E. Sax. netl, netele; Dutch, netal; Greek, 

 xn>j, from the root of xv<<, xvo>, to scratch. 



The finely acuminated prickles of the Net tie, if examin- 

 ed with a microscope, will be found to resemble the stings 

 of insects, and teeth of adders. Notwithstanding their mi- 

 nuteness, they are hollow, and convey a poisonous fluid, 

 which lurks in a small bag at the base of the sting; upon the 

 sting meeting with resistance, it presses upon this little reser- 

 voir, and ejects the fluid, a caustic essential oil, into the 

 wound made by the point. 



Nettle is supposed to be derived from the Greek word 

 VUTTIIV, to sting. 



[See Skinner, and Lemon, word nettle.] 



Urtica flings 

 Her barbed shafts, and darts her poison'd stings. 



Darwin. 



The flowers of this genus have no corolla. The stam- 

 niferous flowers have a cup or calyx of four roundish leaves ; 

 instead of the petals, a honey-cup is placed in the centre of 

 the flower. The pistill\ferous flowers are not, always, on 

 the same plant, but are sometimes seen on distant ones: they 

 have a cup formed of two valves, which, closing, supplies the 

 place of a seed vessel. Seed, solitary, superior, polished. 



NIGHT-SHADE. 



Solatium, and Jltropa. 



Solatium, is among the few ancient names whose source 

 cannot be traced. Rees 1 Cyclopedia. 



Ainsworth, derives Solanum, from Sole, but whether he 

 means the ablative case of Sol, the Sun, or Solee, a city of 

 Cilicia, (founded by Solon, from whom it took its name) from 



whence it may have been originally brought, or where it may 

 have been first observed, does not appear 



Jltropa, from Jltropos, the third Fate, who is supposed 

 to cut the thread of life. Jltropa is the deadly Night-shade 

 of Linnaeus, and other botanists. 



Solanum and Jltropa, are of the same class and order, as 

 designated for Solanum in the glossary. 



Of Night-shade, Skinner offers the following etymo- 

 logy: 



"Night-shade, Teutonic natschade, Solanum; so call- 

 ed, either from its dark colour, or, because it produces sleep, 

 the representative of night; or, rather, according to the Teu- 

 tonic mode of writing, from the Teutonic nacht, night, and 

 schade, damage, as much as to say the damage or destruction 

 of night: because, to wit, it induces perpetual night, at least, 

 if liberally taken." 



The genus Solanum, contains plants of the herbaceous, 

 shrubby, and tuberous-rooted kinds. Many of them esculent, 

 as the potato, egg-plant, tomato, &c. 



The Solanum Nigrum, Garden Night-shade, has white 

 flowers, with yellow anthers; corolla of one petal, wheel- 

 shaped, tube very short; calyx of one leaf, cut half way down 

 into five erect, acute, permanent segments; berries the size 

 of currants, usually black, sometimes yellow; stem bushy; 

 leaves scattered, stalked, ovate, slightly downy, elongated at 

 the base; wavy, or coarsely toothed at the margin. 



Jltropa Belladonna has, also, a one-leafed perianth, five- 

 parted, gibbous; divisions acute, permanent; corolla one-pe- 

 talled, bell-shaped, of a dirty violet colour, longer than the 

 calyx; anthers white, large; berry depressed, furrowed, when 

 ripe, of a shining black colour, sweet, juicy; stem herbaceous, 

 about three feet high ; leaves ovate, entire, two together, of 

 unequal size, petiolated, smooth, of a dull green. The plant 

 is to be avoided, being a strong narcotic poison. In some 

 instances, even half a berry has produced fatal effects. Its 

 root is perennial. 



In the genus Jltropa is found the celebrated Mandrake, 

 or Jl. Mandragora, native of the South of Europe. The 

 fancied resemblance of some of the roots of this plant to the 

 human form; the danger of taking them out of the ground, (it 

 was supposed to cause the certain death of the person who 

 dared to attempt such a deed,) and the groans emitted by it 

 when violence was offered, as well as other surprising virtues 

 ascribed to it, are all equally fabulous. 



Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan, 



I would invent as bitter, searching terms, 



As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear Shaks. 



And shrieks, like mandrakes, torn out of the earth, 

 That living mortals, hearing them, run mad. Same. 



The Mandrake has a soporific quality, and the ancients 

 used it when they wanted a narcotic of the most powerful 

 kind. [See Johnson.] 



Come, violent death, 

 Serve for Mandragora, to make me sleep. 



Webster's Duchess of Malfy. 



