106 THE MANDRAKE. 
den companion, the Flora Historica, from which 
work the above historical notices of the man- 
drake have been principally taken, “ a species 
of deadly nightshade, which grows with a long 
taper root like the parsnip, running three or four 
feet deep; these roots are frequently forked | 
which assisted to enable the old quacks to give 
it the shape of a monster. This plant does not 
send up a stalk, but, immediately from the crown 
of the root arises a circle of leaves, which at first 
stand erect, but when grown to their full size, 
which is about a foot in length and five inches 
broad, of an ovate-lanceolate shape, waved at 
the edges, these spread open and lie on the 
ground ; they are of a dark-green, and give out a 
fetid smell. About the month of April the 
flowers come out among the leaves, each on a 
scape about three inches long; they are of a bell 
shape with a long tube, and spread out into a 
five-cleft corolla. The colour of the flower is of 
an herbaceous white, but frequently has a tinge of 
purple. The flower is succeeded by a globular 
soft berry, when full grown, as large as a common 
cherry, but of a yellowish-green colour, when ripe 
