250 VEGETABLE POISONS. 



SECTION III. 



Nightshade. 



Solarium nigrum Lixn* 



Solarium Dulcamara Linn. 



Atropa Belladonna Linn. 

 The vernacular term nightshade is applied to the above two 

 species of solarium (the first being distinguished by the term garden 

 nightshade, and the second by that of woody nightshade ;) and the 

 one species of atropa, which is peculiarly characterised by the term 

 deadly nightshade. They are all medicinal under proper manage- 

 ment, and poisonous when taken in excess. 



1. Atropa Belladonna, Deadly nightshade. 



This has a thick, whitish, root, which is perennial, and sends forth 

 strong, branched, annual, purple-coloured stems, from three to five 

 feet high. The leaves are of unequal size, entire, oval, pointed, and 

 stand in pairs upon short footstalks. The flowers are of a dark or 

 brownish purple colour, large, pendent, bell-sbaped, furrowed, and 

 the limb cut into rive segments. The whole plant is covered with 

 fine hairs or down : the flowers appear in June or July, but the ber- 

 ries are not ripe till September, when they acquire a shining black 

 colour. It grows in shady and stony waste grounds, but is not very 

 common near London. 



Whether this plant is the ^Tpvyvo; ^avmog of Dioscorides or 

 not, botanists have not yet ascertained, but it has certainly been 

 long known as a strong poison of the narcotic kind ; and the berries, 

 though less powerful than the leaves, furnish us with many instances 

 of* their fatal effects, particularly upon children, who are r< adily 



* Sennert. lib. vi. par. 7. cap. 9. Lobel Stirpium Adversa. p.103, MatthiduJ 

 Oper. Omn. p. 754. Oetinger de Belladonna. Aug. Vindel. Strychnoma- 

 ria, &c. Bodaeus a Stapel. Comment, in Tlieophrast. 586. Simon Pauli 

 Quad. Botan. p. 488. Gerard's Herbal, 341. Wepfpr's Cicut. Aquat. Histor. et 

 Noxae, p. 228. Boulduc. histoire de i'Acad. a. 1703. Rossi Plant. Venen. p. 

 11. Boerhaave's hist. Plant. Lugd. Bat. hort. p. 510. Journ. de Med. ann. 

 1759. Gent. Magaz. 1747 and 1748. Hill's British Herbal, p. 329. Spiel, 

 man's Diss. Veget. Venen. p. 16. Mapp. PL Alsat. p. 36. Murray's Apparat. 

 Medicam. p. 431. Many other recent facts of the same kind might be adduced 

 from various periodical publications. Ray found by applying the leaves of 

 the Belladonna near the eye, a remarkable relaxation of the uvea was produced, 

 and the oculists of the present day have in various case8 availed themselves of 

 this curious fact. Editor^ \ 



