V t 566 ]
S O L A \ N UM U M 11
nigrurru
Common or Garden Nightßiade.
P E N T A N D R IA Monogynia
Gen. Char. Cor. wheel-fhaped. Anthera flightly
connected, opening by two pores at the top. Berry
fuperior, two-celled.
Spec. Char. Stem herbaceous, without thorns;
Leaves ovate, bluntly toothed and waved. Umbels
lateral, drooping.
Syn. Solanumi nigrum. Linn. Sp. PI. 266. Hudf. 92.
With. 254; Relh. 91.- Sibth. 78. Cilrt.Lond.faJv.
2. t. 14.
S. vulgare. Rail'Syn. 265.
4 Ó M M O N every where in cultivated as well as wafté
ground, more efpecially on dunghills, thriving moll in a rich
toil, and flowering from June to September.
Root annual, much branched. Stem branched, fpreading,
leafy, angular, fometimes winged, and often of a woody hard-
nefs; for in our mildeft feafons, as in hot climates, it furvives
the winter. Leaves alternate, on footftalks, ovate, waved,
lengthened out at the bafe, fomewhat downy. Umbels lateral,
from the interlaces of the Hem between the leaves, drooping,
downy, bearing a few white mulky-fcented flowers. Berries
black, globular. Hudfon mentions their being fometimes
yellow.
The whole herb is foetid, narcotic, celebrated for promoting
pèrfpiratioh and urine^ but to be ufed with great caution. An
lrifufion of from one to three grains of the dried leaf, is faid to
be amply fufficient for a dole, a larger quantity occalioning
violent ficknefs, with head-ach, giddmefs, and other dangerous
fymptoms. An ointment made of thefe leaves and hog’s
lard was ufed by Solano de Luque, a famous Spanilh phyli-
cian, about two centuries fince, in the cure of corifumptions.
The patient was to be buried for fome time up to the chin in
the earth, and afterwards rubbed with this ointment. See Dr.
Simmons’s Obfervations on the Treatment of Confumptions,
Few practitioners now would expeét any good from this pre-
feription, at leaft as far as the nightlhade is concerned.