106 PLANTS GROWING IN MOIST SOIL. 
NIGHTSHADE. BITTER SWEET. SCARLET BERRY. 
Solanum dulcamara. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Nightshade. Purple, dotted with green. Scentless. Maine westward. /une-September. 
Flowers : growing in drooping cymes on slender flower-stalks. Calyx: five- 
parted. Corolla: wheel-shaped; five-parted. Stamens: five; protruding; 
Pistil: one. Fruit: a small, egg-shaped, red berry. Leaves; alternate; on 
petioles; the lower one heart-shaped and pointed at the apex; the upper 
ones divided into three, rarely five, unequal leaflets, the centre,one long, slightly 
heart-shaped, the other two small and wing-like at base. Stem : three to eight 
feet high; climbing; woody; smooth. 
Seldom can a more exquisite study in colour and outline be 
found than the berries of the nightshade as they droop from 
their zig-zag peduncles. They are also among those that can 
boast of a perfect background. Their rich, fantastically 
shaped leaves hover about them much as the night droops upon 
and protects the earth. This, however, is purely imaginary, as 
one is apt to become when gazing at the nightshade. 
The plant has been classed among the moderately poisonous 
ones and owes the peculiar taste of its twigs and roots, first 
bitter then sweet, to the presence of dulcamarin. 
MOCK APPLE. WILD BALSAM APPLE. (Pilate XZZX.) 
Micrampeits lobata. | 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Gourd. Greenish white. Scentless. Matne southward July-Sepiember. 
and westward. 
Flowers ; small; the staminate ones closely crowded in a raceme; the pistillate 
ones growing singly. Frat: large; ovate; green; covered with slender spines. 
Leaves : three to seven lobed, the middle lobe longest; deeply cordate at base; 
serrated; rough on both sides. Stem : grooved; branching ; climbing by tendrils 
that are three-forked. 
Unlike most of our climbers, we find this one in flower and 
fruit at the same time. In its wild state it follows the rivers, 
but throughout the east we find it mostly cultivated for orna- 
ment. 


