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-lobed, 
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.) 
Fic. 260. — Black Henbane (Hyoscy- 
amus niger). Xt. 
Means of control 
Grub out and destroy the plants as soon as discovered, allowing 
no seed to mature. 
