638 
H Y O 
HYM'NIC, adj. [yunot, Gr.] Relating to hymns 
He rounds the air, and breaks the hymnic notes 
In birds, heav’n’s chorifters, organic throats ; 
Which, if they did not die, might feem to be. 
A tenth rank in the heavenly hierarchy. Donne. 
HYNE LOUGH, a bay of the Atlantic, on. the fouth 
coaft of Ireland, between Toe Head and Baltimore Har¬ 
bour. 
HYN'NERY, a town of Sweden, in the province of 
Smaland : forty-five miles weft-fouth-weft of Wexio. 
HYOBAN'CHE,yi in botany, a genus of the cl^fs di- 
dynamia, order angiofpermia, natural order of perfonatas, 
(pediculares, JnJf.) The generic characters are—Calyx: 
perianthium feven-leaved; leaflets linear, acuminate, ereCf, 
the length of the corolla. Corolla: one-petalled, ringent ; 
upper lip vaulted, emarginate ; lower none. Stamina : 
filaments four, twin, inferted into the bafe of the corolla, 
of a. middling length; antherse ovate, nodding, opening 
on the upper fide. Piftillum : germ ovate ; ftyle filiform, 
curved at the top ; ftigma thickened, blunt, emarginate. 
Pericarpitnn : capfule roundifh, two-celled. Seeds: nu¬ 
merous, fmall .—EJential CharaEler. Calyx feven-leaved ; 
corolla ringent, without any lower lip ; capfule two-celled, 
many-feeded. There is but one fpecies, called 
Hyobanche fanguinea, or bloody hyobanche. Stem half 
a foot high-, quite fimple, woody, thick, clofely imbri¬ 
cated with leaves, or rather ovate fcales, convex on the 
oivtfide, fmootli, blunt. Spike terminating, denfe, flefhy, 
villole, the length of the Item, and three times as broad, 
imbricated with braftes and flowers. Braftes (one to each 
flower) ovate-oblong, birlute on the outfide, the fame 
length with the tube of the flowers, which are feflile. 
The whole plant refembles the orobanche in ftature, but 
it is blood red. The feven-leaved calyx, and corolla def- 
titute of a lower lip, are fufficient reafons for the removal 
of this plant from the genus orobanche. It is a native of 
the Cape of Good Hope, and is parafltical at the roots of 
fli rubs. 
HYO'NA, or Icolmkill, one of the Hebrides Iflands. 
See Icolmkill. 
HYOSCY'AMUS,/ [kos Gr. hog-bean; thefe 
animals, according to ./Elian, being poifoned with it, and 
dying, unlels drenched within and without with water.] 
Hen bane ; in botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, or¬ 
der monogynia,. natural order of luridse, (folanese, Jn/f.) 
The generic characters are—Calyx: perianthium one- 
leafed, tubular, ventricofe at bottom, with a five-cleft 
lharp mouth, permanent.. Corolla: one-petalled, funnel- 
form ; tube cylindrical, lhort; limb from ere£t fpreading, 
half-five-cleft; fegments obtufe, one broader than the 
ethers. Stamina: filaments five, awl-fhaped, inclining; 
antherre roundifh. Piftillum: germ roundifh,; ftyle fili¬ 
form, the length of the ltamens f ftigma headed. Peri- 
carpium : capfule ovate, obtufe, marked with a line on 
each fide, two-celled, two capfules clofely approximating, 
■with a lid opening horizontally ; receptacles half ovate, 
fixed to the partition. Seed : numerous, unequal, irregu¬ 
lar .—EJfential CharaBer. Corolla funnel form, obtuie ; 
ftamina inclined ; capfule two-celled, covered with a lid. 
Species, x. Hyofcyamus niger, black or common hen¬ 
bane: leaves ftem-clafping, finuate ; flowers feflile. Com¬ 
mon black henbane has long flefhy roots, which ftrike 
deep into the. ground, and are branched. Bottom leaves 
foft, deeply flatbed on their edges,, and fpreading on the 
ground. The ftalks,. which do not rife till the fecond 
fpring,liave leaves of the fame lhape, but fmaller, and clafp- 
lng, and are about two feet high; on the upper part are 
flowers (landing on one fide in-a double row', fitting clofe 
to the ftalk alternately. The whole plant is covered with 
unCtuous fetid hairs. The corolla is yellow, or-rather pals 
yellowifh-brown, beautifully netted with purple veins, 
and a dark purple eye or bafe ; the fhape is irregular, gra¬ 
dually tapering into the tube, with five prominent ribs 
cm the outfide ; the upper leg meat is the large!!, the reft 
H Y O 
gradually diminifhing downwards ; the upper incifions- 
are fhallow, the lowermoft extending half way to the bafe, 
and much wider than the reft; calyx a little diftended on 
the under fide, woolly at the bafe with long foft hairs, 
matted with thofe of the flowers next above and below; 
filaments white, with foft hairs below; the uppermoft 
Ihorteft, thofe below gradually increafing in length ; an¬ 
thers and ftyle of a fine deep purple. The capfules do 
not fplit, as moll others do, into tw'o or more valves, but 
are covered with a lid, that rain, as Linnseus expreffes it, 
may not fpoil the feeds. This lid, though it may eafily 
be feparated with a knife, yet adheres fo ftrongly to the 
body of the capfule, that the feeds more frequently efcape 
by the perforations of infeCts than from the falling off 
of the lid. The calyx becomes rigid, and the capfules 
continue on the dead plant till the plants of the next year 
are in flower; when, the leaves being fallen off, the fruit 
appears in bunches pointing one way, in two rows from one 
fide of the ftera and branches. Seeds very abundant, grey, 
excavated and angular. The whole plant has a'ftrong 
and peculiar odour, arifing from the vrfeid hairs with 
which it is covered, greatly affeCting the head of tome 
perfons, as foon as they come within its atmofphere. 
The root, herb, and feeds, taken internally, are reputed 
poilonous, and well-attefted inftances of their bad effeCts 
are recorded. Madnefs, convulsions, and death, are the 
general confequence. Dr. Smith fays, he has often eaten 
the feeds with impunity, but this muft have been in fmail 
quantities. Lightfoot, however affirms, that a few of the 
feeds have been known to deprive a man of his reafon and 
limbs ; relying probably on the relation of Haller, that 
one of his fellow-pupils under Boerhaave, at Leyden, in 
the year 1725, having eaten aconite, apocynum, and bel¬ 
ladonna, with impunity, was at length taken in by the 
feeds of henbane, loft his reafon and the ufe of one tide 
but his life was faved by Boerhaave. Linnaeus affirms, 
that the roots have been frequently eaten for parfnips, and 
have produced delirium, and not unfrequentiy death. Mr. 
Miller informs us, that a mixture of thefe roots having 
been imported with gentian, has heen attended with very 
bad effeCts. Other relations of the narcotic and poifon- 
ous effeCts of the feveral parts of henbane may be met 
with in almoft all the authors who have treated of this- 
naufeous plant. Linnasus fays, it is not touched by any 
quadruped, except perhaps the goat, and that animal is 
not fond of it. Sheep, it is faid, will fometimes eat it 
when young. There is a fort of bug (cimex hyofeyami). 
very common on it; chryl'omela hyofeyami alfo feed upon, 
it. According to Linnseus, the roots fcattered about a 
houfe will drive away mice. Henbane, like other poi- 
fons, has been ufed medicinally from time immemorial 
and there is no doubt of its being an ufeful medicine un¬ 
der proper management. The Edinburgh college order 
the exprefled juice of the plant to be evaporated to an ex¬ 
tract ; and perhaps in this ftate it may be advantageoufly 
joined with opium, where the effeCts of the medicine are. 
defirable, and coftivenefs is to be avoided. Thedofe is from, 
half a fcruple to half a dram. Villars fays, the extraCt may 
be given fafely in a dofe of two or three grains, increafing 
the quantity gradually ; but that it ought to be prepared. 
from the plant juft going into flower, and in balneo maria:; 
for it has neither odour nor activity, if the plant be young, 
or if the extract be made 1 with an open ftrong fire : he has 
adminiftered it internally in epilepfy and convulfions, and 
found that it put.off the fits, and diminiflied their violence, 
but did not effeCt a cure. Stoerck,.and others after him, 
have recommended it not only in the above diforders, but 
in mania, hssmoptoe, the dry cough, but univerfally 
wherever an anodyne is wanting to quiet 'the nervous ir¬ 
ritation ; beginning with a Angle grain of the extraCt, 
and increafing the dofe gradually to five grains ; lome 
more daring practitioners proceed as far as fifteen grains;, 
but in general, perhaps it is more advifable to continue 
the ufe of the medicine longer than to give it in very large 
dofes. It lias been eyen adminiftered in a cataraCt, to the. 
quantity 
