184, 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



NIGHTSHADES. 



AMONGST botanists the nightshade family (Solani) are placed 

 in the class Pentandria, order Monogynia, natural order Lurida. 

 In a purely scientific point of view this arrangement is no 

 doubt very complete and intelligible to those who are far 

 too well informed to mistake a nightshade for any other plant ; 

 but it is our object to lay before such of our readers as are not 

 acquainted with the anatomy and structural differences distin- 

 guishing botanical species, enough information, aided by illustra- 

 tions, to guard them from the fate which a short time since 

 Unfortunately befel Captain Bawden and his party, whilst en- 

 gaged in a search for minerals in the Isle of Man. Many of 

 our readers will remember that, feeling fatigued and thirsty, 

 he and his companions pulled up from the earth a plant, the 

 root of which bore some fanciful resemblance to that of a wild 

 carrot, and ate a portion of it. In less than fifteen minutes 

 Captain Bawden paid the forfeit of his want of discretion with 

 his life. The others, who partook more sparingly of the root, 

 fortunately procured milk, which they found alleviated their 

 sufferings, and in time recovered. Some time since we remem- 

 ber being witness to extraordinary popular excitement and 

 consternation, caused by a number of people being taken 

 suddenly and dangerously ill, through eating tarts and puddings 

 made from an unknown fruit, which some stranger to the neigh- 

 bourhood had been vending at a cheap rate, under the name of 

 nettle-berries. An examination of some of the berries which 

 remained unconsnmed showed them to be the fruit of the 

 deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) of which we shall have 

 more to say as we proceed. Some members of the Solani 

 with which we shall have to deal are indigenous to the soil 

 of England ; others have become acclimatised, and although 

 originally natives of a warmer climate, now grow freely in this 

 country. We will commence our remarks, then, with the most 

 important nightshade in the world, a plant which may be said 

 to rank next to corn in food-yielding importance in most 

 civilised countries. Solanum tuberosum, the common potato of 

 our fields and gardens, was first introduced by Sir Walter 

 Ealeigh, who brought the roots from Quito, and caused them to 

 be planted in his own garden at Youghal, in Ireland. On the 

 plants arriving at maturity, Sir Walter's old gardener, availing 

 himself of the privileges of his situation, gathered some of the 

 fruit, or " potato apples," as they are now called, and tasted 

 them. Those of our readers who have eaten of this particularly 

 unpalatable and unwholesome production will feel no wonder 

 that the ire of the old man should have been raised. Breaking 

 in unceremoniously on his master's studies, he exclaimed, " If 

 this is your fine foreign fruit, I would not give it garden room, 

 not I! " "Well," said Sir Walter, " if it is as bad as you say, 

 dig it up at once ; but if you find any roots worth looking at, 

 bring them to me." It is, perhaps, needless to say that the roots 

 proved very well worth examining. It was not, however, until 

 about 1732 that regular potato crops were cultivated in Scot- 

 land. England followed the example set by the Scottish far- 

 mers, and grew the new root. So deep was the prejudice 

 existing against this plant in the minds of the ignorant, that 

 when the Russian government issued seed potatoes to the native 

 cultivators, with orders to attend to the increase of the crop, 

 the new tubers were called the "Devil's apples," a name -which, 

 in some remote districts of the Oural, they still bear. 



In its wild state the potato grows its tubers very near and 

 often even on the surface of the ground. They are small, acrid, 

 and by no means tempting in appearance. The Spaniards and 

 Portuguese appear to have discovered its value before its intro- 

 duction to England by Ealeigh. The word " potato," pronounced 

 by the Spaniards battata, is no doubt a corruption of the 

 original native name. In addition to its value as a culinary 

 vegetable, the potato tuber is remarkable for producing by 

 treatment an abundant supply of farina, from which a very 

 large quantity of the tapioca sold in our shops is manufactured. 

 Potato flour or starch, under the name of arrowroot, has also 

 a considerable sale. The potato plant is probably too 

 familiar to our readers to need description. The blossom, although 

 of larger size, closely resembles that of Solanum dulcamara, 

 represented at Fig. 1. The potato fruit is about the size 

 of a large marble, and contains numerous seeds. Solanum 

 dulcamara, woody nightshade, or bitter-sweet, is an indigenous 



plant, and common throughout England, and some districts of 

 Siberia and Africa. It is found growing abundantly in hedge- 

 rows, and about old walls and ruins. It is a woody-stemmed 

 but trailing perennial plant, flowering in June and July. The 

 flowers, which are of a bluish-purple, with a projecting yellow 

 spike in the centre, are followed by clusters of berries, which 

 ripen in September and October. When ripe they present a 

 most attractive and tempting appearance, being of a rich full red 

 tint. A reference to Fig. 1 in the illustration on the opposite page 

 will serve to show the form of the flower, leaf, stem, and fruit. 

 All parts of the plant are poisonous, and, as would appear by 

 the lamentable catastrophe we have before referred to, the root 

 must be most virulently so, to destroy the life of a strong, robust 

 man in a few minutes. The shoots and young leaves of this 

 plant have been occasionally used in medicine, but we are not 

 aware of their possessing any special quality to recommend them 

 in a curative point of view. 



Next in order we proceed to describe the plant known as the 

 Deadly Nightshade "Dwale" (Atropa belladonna), and from which 

 the so-called " nettle-berries " before mentioned were gathered. 

 This is also a native of England, and is found growing wild in 

 the hedges and woods of many districts. This plant, or rather 

 bush, is also a perennial, and not unfrequently reaches from 

 five to six feet in height. The leaves are ovate and entire, and 

 the flowers somewhat the shape of the common harebell of our 

 woods and hedges, but larger, and of a rich and lurid purple 

 colour, each flower springing alone from axis or union 

 between the leaf and stalk. As the flower passes away it is 

 succeeded by the fruit, which, when mature, is about the size 

 of an ordinary cherry, black in colour, rich in bloom, and 

 of a sweetish and rather agreeable taste ; but the growing 

 plant when approached, particularly when the fresh dew 

 of morning hangs on it, gives forth an oppressive and 

 faint odour. This plant, like S. dulcamara, grows luxuriantly 

 among fallen walls and the ruins of old buildings. Every 

 part of the plant is both narcotic and poisonous, but in the hands 

 of the pharmaceutical chemist it yields products of great medi- 

 cinal value. Possessing, as its extract does, the curious property 

 of dilating the pupillary opening of the eye, this property 

 is taken advantage of by the oculist as an aid in prosecuting 

 his examinations as to the condition of the eye, and in the 

 prosecution of such operations on that organ as may be 

 requisite. It is also used extensively in both neuralgic and 

 pulmonary affections ; so that deadly nightshade, like many 

 other justly dreaded natural productions, is found to possess 

 its good qualities as well as its evil ones, when we know 

 how to avail ourselves of them. Fig. 2 in the annexed illus- 

 tration represents the leaf, stem, flower, and embryo fruit of the 

 deadly nightshade. The term Belladonna applied to this plant 

 appears to have been derived from the practice which was at 

 one time made of using the juices as a cosmetic ; hence we 

 have the name " Beautiful Lady." Atropa we have from the 

 name of one of the Fates, " Atropos ; " and Dwale from the 

 French deuil (grief), a figurative destination at which you are 

 pretty sure to arrive if you partake of the atroca fruit. 



There is a plant found growing abundantly in almost every 

 hedgerow in England, which has been by popular error com- 

 monly confounded with the plant just described, and incorrectly 

 called deadly nightshade, or the " poison-berry." This plant ie 

 the Bryonia or Briony, but it is in no way related to the true 

 nightshades or Solani, being a member of the family of Cucur- 

 bitacea, to which melons, gourds, vegetable marrows, cucumbers, 

 etc., belong. Most of our readers will have observed this trail- 

 ing, climbing plant, vine-like in foliage and mode of growth, throw- 

 ing out its long corkscrew-shaped tendrils and greenish-yellow 

 flowers in the months of June and July. These are succeeded in 

 the autumn by clusters of very beautiful scarlet berries or fruit, 

 which, from their currant-like and juicy appearance, are not un- 

 frequently eaten of by children and ignorant persons. Every part 

 of this variety growing in Great Britain is poisonous, although 

 the young shoots of a plant of kindred species growing abroad are 

 boiled and eaten, just as we eat asparagus, with impunity. The 

 root of our hedge-briony at times grows to a very large size, and 

 is not unfrequently mistaken for that of the mandrake, to be 

 hereafter described. Fig. 3 represents the leaf, stem, and flower 

 of the common Brionia. The berries are round, about the size 

 of small peas, and contain an acrid, poisonous juice, which 

 has been highly extolled as a remedy for ringworm. Tlaie 



