THE  AMERICAN" 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
JANUARY,  igog 
THE  CULTIVATION  OF  ATROPA  BELLADONNA  IN 
PHILADELPHIA. 
By  John  A.  Borneman,  P.D. 
During  the  past  fifteen  years  I  have  been  engaged  in  the  cultivation 
of  Belladonna  along  with  other  medicinal  plants,  and  I  have  at  all 
times  found  the  cultivation  of  the  plant  profitable  and  most  interest- 
ing. I  find  it  to  be  the  easiest  of  all  the  imported  plants  to  cultivate, 
and,  if  a  market  could  be  found  for  the  domestic  drug,  it  would  pay 
very  well  to  cultivate  it  on  a  large  scale.  At  first  considerable  diffi- 
culty was  experienced  in  getting  plants  from  the  seed,  due  I  think 
to  two  causes :  ( i )  inferiority  of  the  seeds  imported  from  Europe, 
and  (2)  planting  of  the  seeds  too  deep  in  the  soil.  I  tried  planting 
the  seeds  direct  in  the  open,  covering  them  with  a  slight  mulch  of 
straw,  but  found  that  only  one  out  of  every  fifty  seeds  would  ger- 
minate. I  then  planted  the  seeds  under  a  cold  cover  in  the  early  part 
of  April,  and  found  that  over  75  per  cent,  came  up.  The  young 
plants  were  transplanted  after  they  had  reached  a  height  of  about 
six  inches  directly  to  the  open  field  about  the  middle  of  May,  about 
25  per  cent,  of  the  seedlings  being  lost  by  transplanting.  The  soil 
was  well  tilled  and  fertilized,  it  being  a  good  garden  soil  and  having 
been  used  for  years  for  the  cultivation  of  flowers  and  garden  veg- 
etables. The  soil  has  to  be  tilled  several  times  during  the  year  and 
kept  free  of  weeds.  By  the  middle  of  June  the  plants  reach  the 
height  of  about  25  inches,  and  by  the  middle  of  July  bear  a  large 
number  of  flowers.  Two  crops  of  leaves  can  be  obtained  in  one 
season,  the  first  about  the  end  of  July,  the  second  the  latter  part  of 
October. 
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