SOLANACEJE. 



481 



Fig. 214. 



Description. — A woody vine, creeping, or climbing, 

 when supported, to the height of eight or ten feet, co- 

 vered with a grayish-green bark on the stem and large 

 branches. Leaves alternate, acute, mostly smooth, 

 though sometimes pubescent, of a dull green colour, 

 and petiolate. They are subcordate towards the base 

 of the plant, but more or less hastate above. The 

 flowers are in branched cymose racemes, opposite the 

 leaves, or terminal, drooping, divaricate, and on alter- 

 nately subdivided peduncles. The calyx is small, 

 acute. The corolla is rotate, five-clefl segments, 

 acute, ovate, violet-coloured, with two whitish spots at 

 base. The filaments are very short, the anthers erect, 

 yellow, somewhat connected into a conical tube. Ovary 

 roundish, bearing a filiform style, longer than the an- 

 thers, with a simple, obtuse stigma. The fruit is a 

 scarlet, oval berry, containing several whitish, plano- 

 convex seeds. 



The Bilter-sweet is indigenous to Europe, 

 and is naturalized extensively, if it be not a na- 

 tive of this country ; it grows in shady, fertile 

 situations, especially where there is some mois- 

 ture; flowering from June to August, and ripen- 

 ing its fruit in the fall, the berries remaining on 

 the vine during most of the winter. There are 

 several varieties of it, founded on the form of 

 the leaves, and their smoothness or pubescence. 

 The officinal portion is the small stems. These 

 should be collected in the autumn, after the 

 leaves have fallen. When fresh the smell is 

 heavy and disagreeable, but in a dried state it is 

 inodorous. In both conditions they have a slight- s. dulcamara, 



ly bitter taste, followed by a peculiar sweetness. 



They give out their properties to water, but boiling for any time destroyssome 

 of their powers. On analysis they have been found to contain, a Bitter- 

 sweet extractive (Dufcarin), Vegeto-animal matter, Gummy extractive, So- 

 lanina, &c. The Dulcarin or picroglycion, Pfaff, is a crystalline substance, 

 having a bitter and sweet taste, and is thought by Soubeiran to be Solanina 

 united to sugar. Solanina was discovered by Des fosses ; it exists in other 

 species of the genus, and is allied in many respects to the other alkaloids dis- 

 covered in the Solanacere, but is not as powerful in its action on the system. 



Medical Properties. — The medical qualities of the Bitter-sweet are those of 

 a narcotic, diuretic, and diaphoretic, but its powers are not very great, though 

 in large doses it certainly will induce the effects of the acro-narcotics, cases 

 of poisoning having been recorded from the berries as well as from the de- 

 coction of the twigs. This decoction has attained some note as a remedy in 

 chronic rheumatism, asthma, chronic catarrhs, and in those morbid condi- 

 tions of the system in which sarsaparilla has been found beneficial. Its 

 main reputation, however, has arisen from the benefit obtained from it in 

 skin diseases of an obstinate character, as lepra and pityriasis ; in these, there 

 is strong evidence that it has proved eminently successful, both administered 

 internally and used as a wash to the affected parts. It is also said that it 

 operates as an anaphrodisiac when given for any length of time. The usual 

 form of administration is in decoction, made with an ounce of the twigs to a 

 pint and a half of water, boiled down to a pint ; of this the dose is about a 



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