JitrNB 1907.] 383 Miscellaneous. 



So much then for the non poisonous members of the Solanaceoe. 



We now come to the poisonous group the Atropece— so called after the most 

 deadly sister of the triad Parcoe— Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos— the last being the 

 one who cut the thread of man's life. Deadly Night shade, Atropa Belladonna, is 

 not uncommon among our English garden or semi-wild flowers. The name Belladonna 

 " Beautiful Lady" has been indifferently derived from its use to enlarge and 

 beautify the pupil of the eye or from the ease with which it removed an incon» 

 venient husband. 



As a sedative in medicine there are few better external applications ; in 

 opthalmic surgery it is invaluable and it has a dubious repute as warding off 

 Scarlatina or Scarlet Fever. 



Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) is narcotic and poisonous, but as to whether 

 it is as deadly to poultry as the name would seem to show the writer has no 

 evidence. 



Allied to Belladonna and perhaps the most interesting of the family to us in 

 Ceylon is the Datura fastuosa or common trumpet flower so often seen growing 

 round coolie lines. It is frequently used locally as a poison and in smaller doses as a 

 narcotic to facilitate burglary. The pupils of the patient are dilated and vision is 

 impaired, the patient seeing a network of imaginary spiders' threads before his eyes 

 which he is continually clawing at. The effects of the poison often last for many 

 years and permanent idiotcy may result from an over dose. Cigarettes made from 

 the leaves are a useful sedative for Asthma. The unequal leaves and thorny fruits 

 should be noticed. 



Last on our list comes Tobacco— Nicotiana Tabacum— one of the earliest dis- 

 coveries of the first explorers of the New World. The name Tobacco is said to be 

 derived from the Yucatan word f or " pipe"— it unquestionably survives in the name 

 of the Island of Tobago, but whether the Island was called after the plant or the 

 plant from the Island is a problem not yet solved. The smoking habit is one of the 

 most extraordinary examples of the power of the human system to become immune 

 to a poison of considerable potency. No one who has suffered from tobacco poison 

 ing is likely to forget it in a hurry, and one wonders how the original experimenter 

 ever had the courage to try a second quid, for it was doubtless first chewed, unless 

 perhaps the idea of smoking came from using the leaves as an anti-mosquito smoke- 

 producer. I have known a case of fatal Nicotine poisoning from a poultice of 

 tobacco leaves applied to an indolent ulcer. 



Jean Nicot whose name is attached to the Tobaccos died in 1600 at the age of 

 70 ; what his exact connection with tobacco was I have forgotten, but England owes 

 its introduction from Virginia to Sir Walter Raleigh late in the reign of 

 Elizabeth. 



Some of the Nicotianas are quite handsome garden flowers. One white 

 flowered night-blooming variety is very common in Ceylon gardens. 



A recent number of the " Times of Ceylon" contained a glowing description 

 of a new hybrid between the Tomato and the Potato, having both an edible fruit 

 and an edible tuber. It was not inaptly christened the " Pomato"— and it might be 

 well if the Editor of the ''T. A." could verify the existence of this not impossible 

 Botanical freak. 



