THE WOODY 

 NIGHTSHADE. 



Solatium Dulcamara. Nat. Ord., 

 Solanacece. 



HE woody nightshade, though 

 by no means so conspicuous nor 

 so attractive as many of the 

 plants that meet the eye in a 

 country ramble, is too common 

 a denizen of our hedgerows to 

 be omitted from our series, and 

 it will, we think, in addition, 

 be found to be not without a 

 certain beauty of its own in the 

 quaint form of its flowers and 

 foliage, in the rich contrasts of 

 colour in the parts of the blossom, 

 and the variety of tint observable in 

 its bunches of fruit. 



The woody nightshade is a shrub throwing out long 

 branches that climb and straggle for a considerable dis- 

 tance over the hedgerows, in which the plant is almost 

 always found. It is never met with standing alone, but 

 when in some tangled thicket or old hedge it can find the 

 needful support to its weak stems, they run for many feet 

 over and among the other plants. The leaves are all borne 

 on stems ; the form of the foliage is subject to a very con- 



