88 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOE. 



itself is obtained from a thick green mucus that surrounds the j will be seen, are alternate, which, in this family, constitutes an 



seeds. This mucus is collected from the fruit when it is nearly | important generic distinction. 



ripe, and after being allowed to stand for a short time, it be- Let us now observe the flowers (Fig. 159). We find theia to 



consist of a calyx in one piece or sepal ; hence the flower is 

 monosepalous. We find, moreover, that the calyx is furnished 



comes turbid and deposits a sediment, which, when it has bean 

 dried, is known as elaterium. It is a powerful purgative and 

 irritant, and has an 

 acid taste. The 

 Bryonia dioica, or 

 common bryony, is 

 a plant which fur- 

 nishes one of the 

 principal medicines 

 used in homoeo- 

 pathy. It is indi- 

 genous to England, 

 and is found in al- 

 most every hedge- 

 row in the southern 

 and western coun- 

 ties, attracting no- 

 tice by its pretty- 

 looking bunches of 

 scarlet berries and 

 its beautifully- 

 formed cordate 

 palmate leaves. It 

 must not be con- 

 founded with the 

 black bryony, or 

 Tamus communis, 

 another plant used 

 by homoeopathic 

 practitioners. This 

 belongs to a diffe- 

 rent natural order, 

 namely, Dioscore- 

 acece. It has long, 



twining stems and bunches of red berries ; but its leaves, although 

 they are cordate, are not divided into lobes like those of the 

 common bryony. They are o a dark-green colour, almost ap- 

 proaching to black. 



SECTION XXX. SOLANACE32, OR THE NIGHTSHADE 

 TRIBE. 



Characteristics : Calyx free ; corolla regular, in five divisions ; 

 stamens inserted on the tube of 

 the corolla, their number equal to 

 that of the divisions, and alter- 

 nating with them. Anthers burst- 

 ing longitudinally, rarely bypores, 

 at the apex ; ovary two-celled ; 

 style continuous ; stigma simple ; 

 pericarp with two, four, or many 

 cells; either a capsule withadouble 

 dissepiment parallel with the 

 valves, or a berry with placentae 

 adhering to the dissepiment. Her- 

 baceous plants or shrubs ; leaves 

 alternate, undivided, or lobed ; in- 

 florescence variable, of ten axillary; 

 pedicles without bracts. 



In the above description of the 

 characters of plants belonging to 

 the tribe Solanacece, the term " dis- 

 sepiment," from the Latin di or dis, 

 apart, and sepes, a hedge, is applied 

 to the partitions that divide the 

 cells of the ovary from one another. 



When we inform the reader that 

 the nightshade, henbane, tobacco, 



153. ELATERTCM-LIKE GOURD (CUCUMIS MOMOEDICA). 



154. THE MANDEAKE (MAXDEAGCEA 

 OPPICINALIS.) 



stramonium, and the mandrake plant, all belong to this natural 

 order, we state enough to convey to him a general impression 

 concerning the Solanacece. It is a highly dangerous family, 

 although one that ministers to our sustenance in the potato, 

 and to the comfort of many in the tobacco. 



The best flower the reader can select for making himself 

 acquainted with the characteristics of the Solanacece will be 

 that of the common deadly nightshade. Let it be procured 

 with leaves attached, for they merit observation. The leaves, it 



with five tooth-liko 

 projections, which 

 would have resulted 

 in the generation of 

 five different sepals, 

 had the progress of 

 indentation gone far 

 enough. 



The corolla, also, 

 consists of one part 

 or petal; hence the 

 flower is said to be 

 monopetalous. Our 

 second diagram(Fig. 

 158) represents one 

 of these flowers cut 

 open in such a 

 manner that the 

 mode of insertion of 

 the stamens is evi- 

 dent. Like the 

 calyx, the corolla i 

 also five dentated. 

 Remark, now, how 

 the stamens are at- 

 tached. They spring 

 from between the 

 dentated processes 

 or lobes of the co- 

 rolla; and this is 

 invariable for all 

 the genera and spe- 

 cies of the Solanacece, serving to distinguish their members 

 from those of the Primulacece, or the primrose tribe. If the 

 reader examine the construction of a primrose, he will find 

 what we say to be true. 



If we now proceed from the flower to the ovary, and trans- 

 versely divide it, two separate cells may be observed, each of 

 which contains a number of ovules (Fig. 160). This ovary, 

 when ripe, constitutes the fruit, 

 a small two-celled black berry. 



If a seed be transversely divided, 

 the embryo will be observed coiled 

 up within it, and is therefore 

 said by botanists to be curved 

 (Fig. 161). Finally, the most 

 essential characteristics of the- 

 Nightshade tribe are superior two- 

 celled ovary, regular flower, and 

 alternate leaves. The latter pe- 

 culiarity distinguishes them from 

 the Gentian tribe, with which 

 their appearance in other respects 1 

 corresponds. 



Numbers of the numerous* 

 family of the Solanacece belong 

 to the tropics, very few species' 

 being natives of temperate regions, 

 and none existing in either north- 

 ern or southern frigid zone. 

 Nearly all, if not all, the species 

 of the Solanacece contain a poison 

 of a narcotic kind. Even that, 

 useful solanaceous plant, the 

 potato, is not entirely free from poison. The fruits are noto- 

 riously poisonous, and even the juice of raw potatoes is in- 

 jurious. Nevertheless, the potato, as we all know, is highly 

 nutritious. This arises from the starch and gluten which 

 it contains being mingled with so little of the poisonous 

 principle that the latter is destroyed by the cooking process to 

 which potatoes are subjected before being eaten. The egg-plant 

 is one of the Solcnaceos, so in like manner is the tomata ; both 

 are occasionally eaten ; the latter, Jndeed, frequently ; by the 



155. FBUIT OF THE 

 STEAMONIUM. 



