Page:Medical Botany-1790-1.djvu/24

 ATROPA BELLADONNA.

SYNONYMA,, ''Pharm. Edin., Socop. Carn.'' I. p. 160. caule herbacco, brachiato, foliis ovato-lanceolatis, integerrimis. ''Hal. Stirp. Helv.'' N. 579. , ''Cluf. Hift.'' p. 86. ''Dod. purg.'' p. 360. , ''Baub. Pin.'' 166. , ''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.

he 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 &Sigma;&tau;&sigmaf;&upsi;&chi;&gamma;&omicron;&sigmaf; &mu;&alpha;&gamma;&iota;&kappa;&sigmaf; 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