358 
Japanese  Belladonna, 
Am.  Jour.  Pharra.. 
July, 1880. 
leafy  stems  have  arisen.  It  is  the  slightly  alternate  disposition  of  the 
nodes  from  which  these  stems  arise  which  gives  the  rhizome  its  knotty 
character.  No  rootlets  remain  attached  to  the  rhizome,  but  each  node 
is  surrounded  with  one  or  more  indistinct  rows  of  dots  or  scars,  appar- 
ently indicating  their  presence.  The  rhizome  is  externally  of  a  brown 
color,  not  white  when  abraded,  as  in  belladonna,  of  a  pale  brown  color 
internally,  speckled  with  numerous  very  minute  dots,  which  appear 
under  a  lens  to  be  white  and  starchy,  and  scattered  through  a  resinous  or 
horny  looking  structure.  The  bark  is  so  similar  in  color  and  so  closely 
applied  to  the  meditullium  as  not  to  be  readily  distinguishable  by  the 
naked  eye.  The  odor  is  slightly  mousy  and  narcotic,  and  the  taste- 
hardly  any  except  a  slight  bitterness.  From  portions  which  were 
mixed  with  the  rhizome,  it  would  appear  to  terminate  in  a  genuine  root 
of  some  length  and  thickness. 
The  recent  investigations  by  Ladenburg,  concerning  the  relationshipi 
of  the  solanaceous  alkaloids  to  each  other,  seem  to  point  out  that  the 
active  principle  of  this  drug  might  be  worth  examination,  as  well  as 
that  of  its  European  congener. 
A  few  remarks  on  the  genus  Scopolia  may  perhaps  not  be  out  of 
place  here.  It  was  founded  by  Jacquin  on  the  peculiarity  of  the  fruit,, 
which  is  a  capsule.  The  capsule,  with  the  calyx  and  pedicel,  fall  off 
together,  and  after  a  time  the  capsule  dehisces  transversely,  like  that  of 
henbane.  In  color  of  the  flower  and  in  foliage  the  plant  so  closely 
resembles  belladonna  that  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  belladonna  has> 
a  baccate  fruit  and  no  rhizome,  even  a  good  botanist  might  be  led  to- 
call  it  an  Atropa,  The  genus  is  named  after  Antoine  Scopoli,  an  Idrian 
physician  and  professor  of  botany,  who  appears  to  have  been  the  first 
to  notice  the  European  species. 
The  Japanese  scopolia  has  the  leaves  often  more  or  less  deeply  den- 
tate, or  even  repand-dentate,  in  which  character  it  presents  an  analogy 
to  Solanum  nigrum  in  this  country,  the  leaves  of  which  may  sometimes- 
be  found  quite  entire  and  sometimes  coarsely  toothed. — Pharm.  Jour., 
and  Trans. ^  April  3,  1880. 
