374 



SOLANACEAE (NIGHTSHADE FAMILY) 



Range: Nova Scotia and Eastern Quebec to Ontario, New York, 

 and Michigan ; also in Idaho and on the Pacific Coast. Locally 

 about Atlantic seaports and in Iowa, Utah, and Montana. 



Habitat: Waste places. Prefers rich soil. 



A coarse, ill-scented, and very dangerous weed, poisonous in every 

 part. Cattle avoid it because of its harsh texture and evil odor, 



but poultry die from eating its 

 ripe seeds and hogs are killed by 

 eating its fleshy roots. 



Stem stout, one to three feet in 

 height, clothed with viscid hairs. 

 Leaves dark green, three to six or 

 more inches long, with irregular 

 pointed lobes, wavy edges, and 

 viscid-hairy midribs; they are 

 alternate, the upper ones sessile 

 and clasping, but the lower ones 

 petioled and drooping on the 

 ground. Flowers in a short, one- 

 sided cluster at the top of the 

 plant and solitary in the leaf 

 angles; they are funnel-shaped, 

 somewhat unequally five-Iobed, 

 nearly two inches broad, the co- 

 rolla greenish yellow with throat 

 and lobes netted with purple 

 veins ; stamens five, exserted and 

 declined ; calyx urn-shaped, with 

 five pointed lobes and five ribs ; it enlarges to enclose the oblong 

 capsule, which is about a half-inch long, two-celled and opens 

 transversely around the top, the latter falling off like a lid, spilling 

 the numerous seeds. These are kidney-shaped, brown, with a 

 strongly netted surface. (Fig. 260.) 



FIG. 260. Black Henbane (Hyoscy- 

 amus niger). X &. 



Means of control 



Grub out and destroy the plants as soon as discovered, allowing 

 no seed to mature. 



