SOLA'NUM JASMINOI'DES. 
JASMINE-LEAVED BITTER-SWEET. 
Class. 
fentandria. 
Natural Order. 
SOLANACE^E. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Native of 
America. 
Height. 
15 feet. 
Flowers in 
September. 
Duration. 
Perennial. 
Introduced 
in 1836 ? 
No. 1178. 
The Latin word solor, to comfort, or assuage 
pam, is believed to be the source whence Solanum 
was originally derived. This word seems to have 
been used by the ancient Latins, for Pliny, in the 
twenty-first book of his Natural Llistory, employs it 
m noticing one of our solanaceous plants, probably 
the Atropa belladonna. He says “ the Greeks made 
good sport with this plant, which they call Strych- 
nos, (the Latins, Solanum,) and state that if a dram 
of the juice be administered to any one, he would 
have strange fantasies and delusions in his dreams ; 
double this dose would make him go beside him- 
self, and a little more would be fatal.” The state- 
ments transmitted to us from the early Greek her- 
balists are very extraordinary. In some instances, 
we may not be competent judges of their truth, in- 
asmuch as plants grown under the influence of dif- 
ferent climates, possess qualities varying greatly in 
their potency ; we cannot, however, resist the con- 
viction, that excessive exaggerations occur in many 
of the statements drawn from the ancient herbalists. 
As regards the qualities of the plants in Solanaceas, 
they are more variable than in any other natural 
