330 soLANACEiE. [Hyoscyamus. 



deciduous, filiform, about as long as tlie limb of the corolla, its suminit (stigma) 

 transverse, capitate, oblong, curved backwards into a semicircle, green and bristly. 

 Ovari/ glabrous, semiovoid, surrounded at base by a white or dull orange, annu- 

 lar and tumid nectariferous gland. Beny perfectly 2-ceUed, globose, much 

 depressed, obscurely lobed or often somewhat quadrangular, from about 6 to 9 

 lines in diameter, deep purplish black, very soft, shining and succulent when ripe, 

 closely sessile on the widely spreading and enlarged calyx. Seeds very numerous, 

 attached to a large fleshy placenta projecting into each cell at right angles to the 

 dissepiment, irregular in shape, roundish, subreniform or subtriangular, when 

 freed from the tinging juice and dried up of a deep iron-gray, with a somewhat 

 metallic lustre like black-lead, beautifully reticulate-punctate, with angular cells 

 or depressions having very sharp edges. 



The flavour of the ripe berries is decidedly sweet and agreeable, wholly devoid 

 of any bitter or nauseous aftertaste, and, in conjunction with their glossy and rich 

 purple aspect, resembling black-heart cherries, hold out a tempting but fatal lure 

 to the ignorant or unwary. 



Micandra physaloides, Gaertn. (Atropa physalnides, L.) originally from 

 Peru, and known by its sinuately dentate leaves, large pale blue flowers, and 

 5-angled, winged, inflated calyx enclosing the fruit, is partly naturalized in waste 

 and cultivated ground at Eyde, Shanklin and other parts of the island, flowering 

 from July to October. I have gathered it at Hastings, and believe that, like 

 Datura Stramonium, it is gradually spreading itself over this and other countries 

 of Europe. 



III. Hyoscyamus,* Linn. Henbane. t 



Calyx 5-cleft, tubular, ventricose below tbe contracted middle. 

 CoroiZa funnel-shaped, obliquely 5-lobed. (Sii^mo, capitate. Cap- 

 sule at the bottom of the rigid persistent calyx, 3-celled, many- 

 seeded, opening transversely at its truncate summit, with a move- 

 able operculum. 



1. H. niger, L. Common Henbane. Stem-leaves oblong 

 amplexicaul deeply sinuato- dentate, flowers unilateral axillary 

 nearly sessile. Sm. E. Fl. i. p. 316. Br. Fl. p. 282. E. B. ix. 

 t. 591. 



On dry waste ground, pastures, village-greens, rubbish and by roadsides, espe- 

 cially near towns and on calcareous soils, also along the sea-beach and on the 

 high downs ; frequent. FZ. May — August, i^r. August, September. ^,orO, 

 Sm.. 



E. Med. — On the Dover and elsewhere about Byde, occasionally. Shore near 

 E. Cowes, abundantly. Bonchurch, just at the entrance of the rough ground 

 they have lately begun building upon, plentiful. Very frequently at Ventnor, 

 especially on excavation-heaps at its western end, near the junction of the upper 

 and lower branches of the road from Newport descending to the town. At St. 

 Lawrence and Bank-end. By Little Buddie farm. Niton. At Binstead, Rev. 

 Wm. Darwin Fox, who told me it came up invariably with Datura Stramonium 

 in his garden there, wherever the ground was disturbed for making fresh borders. 



* Name from "J, "oj, a hog, and >cuafA,Oi, a bean, which the seed-vessel (?) was 

 thought to resemble. 



f It is difiicult to account for the origin of the English name Henbane, except 

 by supposing it to be a corrupt translation of the Greek, and properly Hogbean, 

 as the French word Jmquiame and the Italian Giusquiamo are more immediately 

 derived from the same classical root. I can find no allusion by any author, 

 ancient or modern, to any injurious effect on poultry which might justify the 

 appellation. 



