OS ENGLISH BOTANY. 
angles, always more or less hairy, the fruit smaller and searlet, tlie 
seeds, at least in the specimens I have seen, more deeply pitted. 
Rhick Nightshade. 
French, Morelle Noire. German, Schivarzer Kachtschatten. 
Tins plant is also called the Garden Nightshade, and has had the reputation of 
being very poisonous. This feet is, however, disputed by recent inquirers ; and we 
find Dr. Swain Taylor, in his work on poisons, denying that the effects of the plant 
on the system are in any way as dangerous as they are supposed to be. Duval gave 
to dogs four ounces of the aqueous extract, and in another experiment 180 ripe berries 
of t lie plant, without any ill effects resulting. On the other hand, Floyer states that 
thirty of the berries killed a dog in three hours. These differences may perhaps be 
reconciled by supposing that the active principle, sotania, on which the poisonous pro- 
perties of both species depend, varies very much at different seasons of the year. Orfila 
found that the extract of Solatium nigrum had a very feeble effect as a poison, and 
the fetal cases reported to be caused by it are perhaps referable to belladonna, for which 
it may have been mistaken. Nevertheless Dr. Taylor observes that " the berries of 
Solanwm nigrum have, in at least one instance, produced very serious effects on children 
who have eaten them. They complained of headache, nausea, vertigo, colic, and 
tenesmus. One child died in the acute stage ; two others apparently from secondary 
consequences, during treatment." 
GENUS II— L Y C I U M. Linn. 
Calyx bellshaped-cylindrical, regularly 5-toothcd, or irregularly 
2- to 5-toothed, persistent but not accrescent after flowering, at 
length enclosing the base of the fruit. Corolla regular, funnel- 
shaped or salvershapcd ; tube elongated ; limb 5-partite ; segments 
imbricated in aestivation. Stamens 5, inserted in the middle or 
near the bottom of the tube of the corolla, included or exsertcd; 
filaments elongated ; anthers not connivent, opening by longi- 
tudinal slits. Fruit a berry with 2 cells. Seeds several, reniforni. 
Shrubs often spiny, with alternate entire leaves, and rather 
small generally lateral flowers of various colour. 
The name of this genus is that of the thorny apple of Thessaly, and is a Greek 
wind — \vKiov (hlMori). The name given by Dioscorides to the ancient plant is derived, 
nn doubt, from I.yeia, in Asia Minor, where it grew. 
SPECIES I.— LYCIUM BARB ARUM. Linn. 
Plate DCCCCXXXIII. 
Reich, to. PL Germ, et Helv. Vol. XX. Tab. MDCXXXV. Fig. 1. 
Sinn slender, arching or supporting itself on surrounding 
objects, much branched; branches slender, pendulous; abortive 
