278 ITROPA. 1 CLASS V. ORDER I. 



causes in dreams and disturbed sleep; and at the same time it does not 

 constipate the bowels, but rather acts as a laxative. Externallj^ the 

 leaves are used in the form of fomentations, to diminish the pain and 

 irritation of inflamed parts in gout and rheumatism, but with much 

 greater advantage to scrofulous and cancerous ulcerations, and inflamed 

 hoemorrhoids. The tincture is frequently an useful application to 

 strumous or chronic inflammations of the conjunctiva; it has also the 

 eS'ect of contracting the pupil, but is much less powerful than bella- 

 donna for that purpose. 



The active principle of the plant resides, according to the investiga- 

 tions of M. Brande, in a peculiar alkaline salt, which he has named 

 Hyosciamiu, which crystallizes in long prisms, and forms neutral 

 salts with the acids. 



The plant by cultivation seems to loose in its active properties, and 

 the flowers become much paler. Wild specimens are also sometimes 

 found quite pale, with indistinctly coloured veins, and is the variety 

 /3. pallidus. 



GENUS XXV. ATKO^PA.— Linn. Dwale. 



Nat. Ord. Solan'e^. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx bell-shaped, five cleft. Corolla bell-shaped, with 

 live equal lobes. Stamens distant. Berry within the calyx, 

 globose, two celled. — Name from Atropa, one of the three fatal 

 sisters who cut the thread of life, in allusion to the fatal eff"ects 

 of the plant upon those who are subjected to its influence. 



1. A. Belladon^na, Linn. (Fig. 356). common Dicale, or Deadly 

 Night-shade. Stem herbaceous; leaves ovate, entire ; flowers axillary, 

 on short peduncles. 



English Botany, t. .592. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 317. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 111.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 182. 



Root thick, fleshy, whitish. "Whole plant of a dark lurid aspect, 

 and of a foetid unpleasant odour when bruised. Stem round, smooth, 

 much branched, from two to four feet high, herbaceous, somewhat 

 downy above. Leaves numerous, mostly opposite, one generally smaller 

 than the other, large, ovate, acute, entire, smooth, with a mid-rib, and 

 numerous lateral veins, on footstalks. Flowers solitary from the axis 

 of the upper leaves, drooping on short stalks, of a dark lurid purple 

 colour. Calyx bell-shaped, five cleft, smooth, or covered over with 

 short close down. Corolla bell-shaped, about three times as long as 

 the calyx, with a short tube, five cleft at the extremity, the segments 

 spreading, acute, veiny. Stamens inserted into the tube of the corolla. 



