99 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



Bitter Sweet (Solatium dulcamara). 



One of the most familiar objects in the hedge is the trailing 

 stem and variously-shaped leaves of the Bitter Sweet or Woody 

 Nightshade ; the singular flowers or the red berries attract our 

 attention at once. This and the Common or Black Nightshade 

 are the sole British representatives of a genus that includes the 

 Potato among other valuable exotic species. 



Bitter Sweet is a perennial, with a creeping rootstock, from 

 which arise the long trailing stems that have no means of 

 climbing in the shape of tendrils, hooks, prickles, or the power 

 of twining, but yet by leaning against the stouter hedge plants 

 manage to attain a height of four or five feet. The leaves vary 

 much, the lowest being heart-shaped, the upper more or less 

 spear-shaped, with gradations between these forms. They are 

 very dark green in colour, and all stalked. The calyx is five- 

 parted ; the purple corolla with five lobes, each having at its 

 base two small green tubercles. The five yellow anthers have 

 their edges united, so that they form a pyramidal tube, through 

 which the style protrudes. The anthers discharge their pollen 

 by terminal pores. The succeeding berries are egg-shaped, and 

 go through a series of colour-changes from green through yellow 

 and orange to a fine red. The popular name is founded upon a 

 peculiarity which we have never tested : it is said the stems 

 when tasted are first bitter, then the sensation changes to one 

 of pleasant sweetness. Flowers June to September. 



The Common or Black Nightshade (S. nigruin) is an annual with an erect stem, 

 about 2 feet in height. Its leaves are egg-shaped, the blade gradually narrowing to 

 the stalk, with a waved or toothed margin. The corolla is white, the berries 

 rounder, usually black, but sometimes yellow or red. Fields and waste places. From 

 July to October. 



