ILLUSTRATIONS. 109 



very inadequate specimen of the favours she had, at first, ap- 

 peared so disposed to offer. 



Another regular-flowered group of perigynous Monopetals 

 is the Solanaceous family, our illustration of which is the 

 Bitter-sweet,"* a deleterious plant, for which it is to be re- 

 gretted that Mr. Bentham has used the name Deadly Night- 

 shade, thus diverting from the much more virulent Atropa 

 Belladonna, to which this premonitory title properly belongs, 

 the caution which is necessary to prevent poisoning, by means 

 of its really tempting-looking, but deadly cherry-like black 

 berries. The Bitter-sweet is a shrubby plant, with straggling 

 branches, often growing to a considerable height, but being 

 killed back for some distance by the frosts of winter. These 

 bear alternate leaves, which are of variable shape, sometimes 

 ovate or ovate-lanceolate, broadly cordate at the base and 

 entire, sometimes with the base angular on one side or un- 

 equally on both sides, or sometimes with a small lobe or seg- 

 ment on one or both sides at the base ; they are also some- 

 times quite smooth and sometimes downy. The flowers are 

 produced in loose cymes, terminating short lateral peduncles, 

 and they consist individually of a five-toothed calyx, a rotate 

 five-lobed star-shaped purple corolla, and five stamens which 

 are united into an erect cone around the simple prolonged 

 style, each anther opening by a small pore at the top. The 

 fruit is a small roundish red berry, containing several seeds. 



The Plumbaginaceous family, represented by the Common 

 Thrift, f belongs to this same regular-flowered series. This 

 well-known plant, a sea-side resident, and frequently used as 

 an edging plant in gardens, is a perennial of tufted habit, 

 producing numerous narrow-linear, almost grass-like leaves, 



* Solarium Dulcamara Plate 16 D. 

 f Armeria maritima Plate 18 C. 



