02. — Perry's PI. Vavv. Select*, p. 21. — Bab. l'l. Batli. p. 3.1.— Murr. North. FI. 
p. 140. — Dick. FI. Abred. p. 29.— Irv. Lonil. FI. p. 139. — Luxf. ltoig. FI. p. 19. — 
Mack. Catal. PI. Irel. p. 24 ; Fl. Hibcrn. p. 190. — Hyoscyamus vulgaris, Hay's 
Syn. p. 274. 
Localities. — Oil waste ground, by road-sides, and On banks, and commons, in 
a dry gravelly or chalky soil, especially' near towns and villages, whence Linnjecs 
remarks, that it associates with mankind, like the Magpie, and some other birds. 
Biennial. — Flowers from June to August. 
Root spindle-shaped. Stem from one to four feet high, up- 
right, round, tough, branched, woolly towards the top, very leafy. 
Leaves alternate, sessile or stem-clasping, soft and pliant, somewhat 
egg-shaped, sinuated, with sharp lobes, downy and viscid, exhaling 
a powerful and oppressive odour, like all the rest of the plant. 
Flowers numerous, from the bosoms of the crowded upper leaves, 
almost entirely sessile. Calyx a little distended on the under side, 
woolly at the base, the tubular part enlarging and enclosing the 
seed-vessel. Corolla of a pale yellowish-brown, beautifully netted 
with purple veins, and a dark purple eye or base. Filaments 
white. Jhithers and Style of a fine deep purple. Capsules in two 
rows, all turned to one side, enclosed in the permanent calyx, and 
forming a kind of unilateral, leafy spike. Each capsule contains a 
great number of small seeds, which find egress by the rounded con- 
vex top coming off, like the iid of a box. — A variety of this species 
with the corolla destitute of the purple veins, has been observed at 
Fincham, Norfolk, by the Rev. R. Forhy. 
Whole plant powerfully narcotic, and when taken in any considerable quan- 
tity, proves quickly poisonous ; well authenticated instances of its fatal effects 
are recorded, ftladne-s, convulsions, and death, are the general consequences; 
yet medicinal preparations of no small importance are obtained from this plant, 
which, according to the experience of Dr. Muiiiiay, are the best substitute for 
pptum which we have; possessing in no small degree its useful qualities, without 
causing the bad effects, fairly attributed to that medicine. The roots strung in 
the form of beads are the anodyne necklaces tied round the necks of children to 
facilitate the growth of their teeth. The fumes from the seeds, heated in the 
bowl of a tobacco-pipe, placed in the fire, and .applied by a funnel to a carious 
tooth, have been recommended in severe fils of toothache. 
The Natural Order, Solaneas, to which the present plant be- 
longs, is composed of Dicotyledonous herbs or shrubs, whose leaves 
are alternate, without stipulas, sometimes opposite beneath the 
flowers. They have a 5-parted, seldom 4-parted, permanent, in- 
ferior calyx ; a monopetalous, inferior corolla, with the limb 5-cleft, 
seldom only 4-cleft, regular, or somewhat unequal, deciduous, the 
sestivation, in the genuine genera of the order, plaited ; in the spuri- 
ous genera imbricated. Their stamens are inserted into the corolla, 
and correspond in number with the segments of its limb, with 
which they are alternate ; one sometimes being abortive. The 
pericarpium is 2- or 4-celled,and is either a capsule, with a double 
dissepiment parallel with the valves, or a berry, with the placentae 
adhering to the dissepiment. The seeds are numerous, and sessile. 
The embryo, which is included in a fleshy albumen , is more or less 
curved, and often out of the centre ; with its radical next the hilum. 
The British genera in this order are, Datura, t. 121 ; Hyoscyamus, t. 321 ; 
Solatium, t. 1 10 ; Atropa, t. 10 ; and Verbascum, t. 85. The latter is referred, 
by Sir J. YV. Hooker, to Scrophularina. 
