Wild Flowers of Georgetown. 341 



sam — or mosquito bush, from being used by particularly 

 sanguine persons in the hope of keeping away those in- 

 sects. Its affinities may be recognised from its square 

 erect stems and generally sage-like character. 



The broad leaves of the butter-bur might be replaced 

 in local sketches by a common and characteristic weed 

 that takes its name from this colony (Solatium demera- 

 re/iscj, the wild bru-bru or Demerara night-shade, 

 easily recognised by its large, coarsely jagged leaves, 

 armed with numerousformidable prickles, its green, yellow, 

 or red berries the size of a small marble, and radiating 

 bunches of small flowers, something like those of the 

 potato, white or pale purplish with yellow stamens. The 

 potato is itself a night-shade (Solatium tuberosum) and its 

 leaves and berries share the poisonous properties that have 

 gained for these plants their popular names of canker- 

 berries, poison-berries and mad-apples. Another common 

 bru-bru of similar habit, the Jamaica night-shade (Solatium 

 jamaicense) has softer, almost downy leaves and stems, 

 with fewer and shorter, more recurved prickles. A small 

 slender, unarmed kind may be recognised by the char- 

 after of its flowers and berries as a night-shade (Sola- 

 tium nodiflorum) ; it is used by the "wise women" in 

 some of their mysterious teas under the name of bitter 

 goomah, and is harmless enough to be boiled as a 

 spinach known as branched calalu. To include the 

 other allied flowers, we may notice here an ornamental 

 climbing species, the local bitter-sweet (Solatium Seafor- 

 thianum) which has sprays of pale blue flowers with 

 yellow centres ; it is often cultivated iti gardens, but is 

 an indigenous species, running wild in the central 

 avenue of the Gardens. Here also may be found a not 



