f}    Work  in  an  English  Herb  Garden. 
491 
First  year's  growth.  ..  .  0.12  per  cent,  total  alkaloid  in  the  dried  herb. 
Second  year's  growth.  .  0.12  per  cent,  total  alkaloid  in  the  dried  herb. 
Experiments  to  determine  what  conditions  are  best  suited  to  the 
production  of  alkaloid  have  been  made  both  with  hyoscyamus  and 
belladonna  ;  it  will  suffice  our  purpose  if  we  give  some  account  of 
experiments  made  with  the  latter  plant. 
In  the  near  vicinity  belladonna  was  occasionally  found  growing 
wild  before  these  experiments  were  undertaken  which  indicated,  what 
was  in  fact  found  to  be  the  case,  that  the  soil  was  very  well  suited 
to  the  plant.  Dissemination  of  the  seed  by  birds  has  since  made  its 
occurrence  still  more  common. 
Wild  belladonna  plants  were  obtained  from  various  parts  of 
England  and  after  propagating  these  for  two  years,  one  strain,  found 
to  yield  a  high  percentage  of  alkaloid  and  to  give  good  growth,  was 
selected  and  exclusively  employed.  It  has  been  stated  by  many 
observers  that  the  cultivated  belladonna  plant  contains  less  alkaloid 
Fig.  3. 
Gathering  Hyoscyamus.    Wellcome  Materia  Medica  Farm. 
