193 



N. Ord. SOLANACE^J. 



Tribe Atropea. Miers, 111. S. Am. PI., i, App., p. 163, &c. (N. Ord.). 

 Genus Atropa, Linn* Miers, 111. S. Am. PL, ii, App., p. 4. 

 Species 2 or more ? natives of South Europe and Asia. 



193. Atropa Belladonna, t Linn., Sp. PL, ed. I, p. 181 (1753). 

 Dwale. Deadly Nightshade. Belladonna. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 82 ; Hayne, i, t. 43 ; Steph. & Ch., t. 1 ; Nees, 

 t. 191 ; Berg & Sch., t. 20 c ; Curt., Fl. Lond., fasc. 5 ; Syme, E. B., 

 vi, t. 934 ; Nees, Gen. Fl. Germ , Gamopet. 



Description. A large, bushy, perennial herb, 3 5 feet high. 

 Root large, fleshy, branched, pale brown. Stems thick, cylin- 

 drical, smooth, purplish, at first dividing into three, the branches 

 dichotomous, and frequently branching, the youngest shoots 

 pubescent. Leaves numerous, alternate below, in pairs above, 

 one leaf of the pair much larger than the other, all shortly 

 stalked, 3 9 inches long, broadly ovate or oval, tapering into 

 the petiole, acute, perfectly entire, dark green, veiny. Flowers 

 solitary (rarely 2 or 3 together), coming off from between the pairs 

 of leaves, stalked, drooping ; peduncle as long or longer than 

 calyx, with short glandular hairs. Calyx deeply 5-cleft, the 

 segments triangular- acuminate, persistent. Corolla bell-shaped, 

 about an inch long, finely downy outside, cut into 5 broad, 

 shallow, blunt, nearly equal, spreading or slightly recurved lobes, 

 dull reddish-purple, tinged with pale green below. Stamens 5, 

 inserted on the base of the corolla and shorter than it, nearly 

 equal; filaments curved upwards at the end; anthers small, 

 roundish, yellowish- white. Style slightly exserted ; stigma 

 capitate, green. Fruit a fleshy berry, sub-globular, depressed, 

 umbilicate at the summit, very obscurely 2-lobed, about f of an 



* Named from Atropos, one of the three Fates, who was fabled to cut the 

 thread of life. (See Linnaeus, Hortus Cliffortianus, p. 57.) 



f Belladonna is stated by Matthiolus and other mediaeval botanists to have 

 been the name of this plant in Venice, where it was employed as a cosmetic. 



