62 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
of Nature's benefactions, it is to be employed in moderation. 
The true nightshade, (Atropa belladonna) , we do not have in 
America, unless as a rare escape. I have myself never seen it 
growing but twice, but the bitter-sweet nightshade is popu- 
larly called the deadly, and is especially dangerous to young 
children, owing to its brilliantj red, almost translucent berries, 
and pretty, blue, potato-like flowers. The plant spreads over 
stone walls, fences, and copses, and is highly ornamental. Its 
little cousin, the black nightshade, (Solauni nigrum) is often 
seen in old farm yards. It has dark berries. 
Much more dangerous then either Solanum Dulcamara or 
6^. nigrum, is the thorn-apple or "Jimson weed", (Datura 
stramonium and D. tatula). These rather bushy, but still 
herbaceous plants, strikingly ornamental and hence much used 
by artists and designers, are found on ash-heaps and in waste 
places throughout the Union. They are said to be of tropical 
origin. The first has large white, funnel-form and convolute 
corollas; the second is in every way smaller; and with violet- 
tinted flowers. Both have a coarse evil smell, yet every year 
deaths from them are reported. The seeds, treated in alcohol 
afford a solution, which according to whether viewed by re- 
flected or transmitted light, is green or a rich red. This plant, 
handsome as it is, always indicates a lack of thrift, and on that 
account as well as its dangerous nature, should be uprooted 
wherever found. 
As a rule it is well to avoid chewing any plant endued 
with a milky juice; hence, I should be suspicious of uncooked 
stems of milkweed or dogbane. The asclepiads in a very 
young state, however, are used in some places as salads. Vin- 
cetoxicum nigrum a near relative of these, a plant with small 
livid flowers, and a repellant odor, a sprawling climber, es- 
capes now and then, and is abundant at West Point, N. Y., 
and Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
If pokeweed {Phytolacca decandra) is not poisonous, all 
the better, for its fine strings of ink-filled berries are very 
