ATROPA BELLADONNA. DEADLY NIGHTSHADE.
SYNONYMA, Belladonna, Pharm. Edin. Belladonna trichotoma, Socop. Carn. I. p. 160. Belladonna caule
herbacco, brachiato, foliis ovato-lanceolatis, integerrimis. Hal. Stirp. Helv. N. 579. Solanum Lethale, Cluf. Hift. p. 86.
Dod. purg. p. 360. Solanum Melanocerasus, Baub. Pin. 166. Solanum majus, Cam. epit. p. 817.
Clafs Pentandria. Order Monogynia. L. Gen. Plant. 249.
Eff. Gen. Ch. Cor. campanulata. Stam. diftantia. Bacca, globofa, 2-locularis.
Spec. Char. Atropa Belladonna, caule herbaceo, fol. ovatls integris.
The Belladonna has a thick, whitifh, root, which is perennial, and fends forth ftrong, branched, annual, purple-coloured ftems, from three to five feet high. The leaves are of unequal fize, entire, oval, pointed, and Hand in pairs upon fhort footftalks. The flowers are of a dark or brownifh purple colour, large, pendent, bell-fhaped, furrowed, and the limb cut into five fegments. The whole plant is covered with fine hairs or down: the flowers appear in June or July, but the berries are not ripe till September, when they acquire a fhining black colour. It grows in fhady and ftony wafte grounds, but is not very common near London.
Whether this plant is the of Στςυχγος μαγικς Diofcorides or not, botanifts have not yet afcertained, but it has certainly been long known as a ftrong poifon of the narcotic kind; and the berries, though lefs powerful than the leaves, furnifh us with many inftances
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