The Deadly Nightshade was very soon discovered by the revivers of
botany after the restoration of learning; and, agreeable to the fashion
of those days, it was greatly debated among commentators, whether it
was known, and by what name, to the fathers of botany Theophrastus
and Dioscorides. Several of the writers of that time, as Dodenæus,
Guilandinus, Fuchsius, and Cordus, were of opinion, that it was the
Mandragora morion of Theophrastus; and their sentiments were espoused
by his learned commentator Bodæus à Stapel[3], who moreover supposes
it the plant, which Dioscorides describes, lib. iv. cap. 69. under the
name of Στρύχνος μανικὸς. On the other hand, Matthiolus[4] has taken
great pains to prove, that it is not the Mandragora of Theophrastus;
and both he and Ruellius[5] are inclined to think, that the Bella-donna
was not known to either of the Grecian Fathers; who are so short,
vague, and immethodical, in their descriptions, that it is very
difficult, not to say impossible, to apply them to particular species
with justness and precision.
Be this as it will, our restorers of botany agreed in general to rank
it with the Solana, or Nightshades; and as most of them took it to be
the Στρύχνος μανικός of Dioscorides, so we find thereto the addition
of some epithet, expressive of its deleterious quality, in most of
their writings; such as lethale, somniferum, furiosum, &c. Its general
agreement with the plants of that genus, and also the knowledge the
world soon had of its poisonous quality, when it is considered, that
systematic distributions, from the parts of fructification, had not
been thought of at that time: these, I say, were sufficient reasons for
referring it to the Nightshades. By such names therefore is it found in
most of the old writers; till Clusius, who, observing perhaps, that it
differed in its parts of fructification from the Solana, adopted the
indigenous Italian name, as a generical one, and called it Bella-donna.
Cæsalpinus, the first inventor of a botanic system, did not separate
it from the Nightshades. Morison and Ray, the revivers of method
almost an hundred years afterwards, were aware of the difference; the
former having placed it in a chapter among the _Solanis affines_,
and the latter constituted a distinct genus of it, tho’ he retained
the old name in his history of plants. Tournefort adopted Clusius’s
name _Bella-donna_, and was followed by all the systematic botanists,
who have since wrote; as Boerhaave, Rivini, Ruppius, Knaut, Magnol,
Ludwig, and Haller; until Linnæus, conformable to the 229th rule of
the Fundamenta Botanica[6], rejected it, and very expressly calls it
Atropa[7]; in which he is followed by all succeeding writers, who have
chosen his method.
Cæsalpinus, Morison, Ray, Herman, and Boerhaave, who range these plants
according to the fruit, place the Deadly Nightshade among the _Herbæ
Bacciferæ_ in their respective systems.
Rivinus, Ludwig, and Christian Knaut, who adopt the number and
regularity of the petals in the corolla, for their classical character,
refer it to such as have regular monopetalous flowers. Ruppius,
whose method is upon the same plan, brings it among the irregular
monopetalous ones.
Tournefort’s method, which is established upon the figure of the
flower, takes it into the first class among such plants as have
campaniform or bell-shaped flowers.
Dr. Van Royen, whose system is undoubtedly a very elegant attempt
towards the natural method in botany, arranges it among such as he
calls Oligantheræ; namely, such plants as have the stamina equal to, or
fewer in number than, the segments of the corolla.
Dr. Haller, whose method is upon the plan of a natural one also,
includes the Bella-donna among the Isostemones, such plants as have the
number of the stamina equal to the segments of the corolla.
In the sexual system of Linnæus, at this time so generally received,
and so well established, it belongs to the Pentandria monogynia, or
such plants as have five stamina and one style. The plants of this
order are arranged into five subdivisions. The Atropa comes in among
those, that have declinated stamina. According to this method, we shall
give its generical characters from the last edition of Linnæus’s Genera
Plantarum.
The most obvious and essential character of the genus is the _globose
berry, and open calyx_[8]. The general character is as follows.
ATROPA Linn. Gen. Plant. Ed. 5. Nº. 222.
The calyx is a gibbous permanent perianthium, formed of a single leaf
divided into five acute segments.
The corolla is formed of a single bell-shaped petal, the tube of which
is very short; the limb ventricose, of an oval figure, and longer than
the calyx. The mouth is small, expanded, and divided into five pretty
equal segments.
The stamina are five subulated filaments proceeding from the base of
the flower, and are of the same length: at the base they are connivent,
and at the top bent outwardly. The antheræ are thick and assurgent.
The germen is of a semiovated figure: the style is filiform, of the
length of the stamina, and inclinated. The stigma is capitated,
transversely oblong, and assurgent. The fruit is a globose berry,
standing in a large cup, and containing three cells. The receptacle is
convex on both sides, and kidney-shaped.
The seeds are numerous, and kidney-shaped also.
_The_ +SPECIES+.
1. Atropa caule herbaceo, foliis ovatis integris. Linn. Spec. Plant. p.
181.
Atropa. Linn. Hort. Cliff. 57. Roy. Lugd. 423. Hort. Ups. 45. Dalib.
Paris. 70.
Bella-donna majoribus foliis et floribus. Tourn. Inst. 77. Boerh.
Lugd. II. 69. Miller, plate 62.
Bella-donna dicta Solanum lethale. Hill. Herb. Britan. p. 328. tab. 47.
Bella-donna. Clus. Pan. p. 503. Bod à Stap. p. 586. Cat. Gissen. 142.
Raii Syn. ed. 3. p. 265. Vaillant. Botan. Par. p. 20. Hall. Helv. 507.
Dale Pharmacol. 4° ed. p. 72. Wilson. Synop. p. 122.
Solanoc ongener flore campanulato vulgatius, latioribus foliis. Hist.
Oxon. III. p. 532. sect. 13. tab. 3. fig. 4.
Solanum somniferum. Fuchs. 689. Icon. opt.
Solanum maniacum multis sive Bella-donna. J.B. III. p. 611.
Solanum melanocerasos. C.B. pin. 166.
Solanum lethale. Ger. 169. emac. 340. Park. 346. Raii. Hist. Plant.
679.
Solanum majus sive Herba Bella-donna. Matthiol. Oper. Omn. p. 756.
Solanum somniferum et lethale. Lobel. Adversar. p. 102.
_Deadly Nightshade_, or _Dwale_.