106 
65. ATROPACE.E. 
large and copious ; 1. always perfectly entire, membranous thin 
and flaccid, reticulately veiny or subrugulose, fast withering, 
shining light or full gr. above, paler and conspicuously reticulate 
beneath, the nerves and veins on both sides finely puberulous ; 
6 or 8-10 or 12 in. long, about or nearly half as broad, acute or 
subacuminate not cordate but a little narrowed and mostly very 
unequal at the base. Petioles stout 1-2 in. long. FI. very 
large w. pendulous aromatically fragrant. Pedic. 1-1| in. long. 
Cal. 4^-5 in. long, 1^ broad pale gr. shining nearly or quite 
smooth, the teeth or lobes subequal broad shallow, |-|in. deep, 
2 of them sometimes coadnate. Cor. trumpet-shaped, (includ- 
ing cal.) about a foot long, the tube on emerging from the cal. 
•| in. in diam. gradually widening into 6 or more inches in the 
limb, which is pure w., the tube being greenish downwards and 
the whole cream-col. or greenish ocliraceous in the bud. Stam. 
and style included, f length of cor. or about 8 in. long ; til. 
round slender 6^ in. long, w. pale greenish downwards, united 
to cor. -tube § of their length, hirsute downwards from about an 
inch below their top to within 1 or 2 in. of their base, the rest 
smooth. Antli. erect affixed by their base linear about \ length 
of fil. 18-20 lines long, scarcely 1§ broad, subciliate at the edges, 
w. or cream. -col. without, brown within, closely united into a 
tube, never separable without force ; bursting introrsally, pollen 
greyish w. Style very slender round smooth throughout; stigma 
4 or 5 lines long, scarcely 1 line broad, narrow-oblong flattened 
very little if at all broader than the style itself, equalling or ex- 
serted f-1 in. beyond the anther-tube ; stigmatic lobes not 
prominent narrow linear decurrent down the edges. Ov. gr. 
quite smooth pyramidally oblong gradually attenuate upwards 
into the style, obsoletely subpentangular 2-celled manv-ovulate. 
Nectary or torus? a thick fleshy pale gr. sinuato-pentangular 
obtusely crenate subpuberulous shallow ring, from which origi- 
nate the stam., copiously honey-bearing. Caps, dry pale brown 
arcuate pod-like 3-4 in. long, narrowly elliptic, beaked or atten- 
uate at each end, indehiscent. 
The fi. are slightly fragrant by day, but much more powerfully 
and diffusedly so after sunset and through the night, when, by 
moonlight, they display an almost radiant or phosphorescent 
snowy whiteness, and expand more fully, falling into elegant 
thick horizontal rows or flounces on tlietr. or bushes. Nothing- 
can exceed their grace and loveliness, when in full luxuriance 
and perfection, which they may be said to attain at intervals 
of 4-6 weeks continuously from June to Nov. or Dec. 
The tr. is esteemed noxious; and therefore in Mad. of late 
years has been banished from gardens and proximity to houses. 
