sides ; July to September. Both species grow in the vicinity of
Amherst College.
P . alkekengi. L. Winter Cherry. A rather handsome
plant, cultivated for ornament, with sour and rather bitter berries ;
a native of the South of Europe, where the berries are “ eaten
as a common fruit ” ; formerly esteemed aperient and detergent.
Loudon.
H yoscvamus. L. 5. 1.
H. niger. L. Henbane. A poisonous plant, sometimes
cultivated for its medicinal properties ; a native of Britain, and
the genus belongs to the eastern continent. The genus is named
from the Greek for hog and bean, from the notion that hogs eat
the poisonous fruit with safety ; a pubescent, fetid plant, not eaten
by quadrupeds ; naturalized in some places. Bigelow’s “ Medical
Botany.”
D atura. L. 5. 1.
Name altered from the Arabic ; only a few species, widely
spread over the earth.
D. stramonium. L. Thorn Apple. Found occasionally by
roadsides and in waste places, and growing 2 or 3 feet high ; stem
large, strong, branching by forks at the top, bearing long funnel-
form flowers, white, or bluish-white, with a plaited border. A
variety called D. tatula, L ., altered from the Persian name Datula,
for the plant, and by some considered a distinct species, has a
purple stem, much dotted. The seeds of the Stramonium were
introduced into England from Constantinople, and the plant is
now common in that country. A few years ago this plant was
considered as a specific for asthma ; it has followed the fate of
all specifics, though it has not lost its valuable properties, even in
that disease, any palliative of which is greatly to be desired. The
plant, like the preceding, has an offensive odor, and is poisonous ;
the seeds are a deadly poison. Bigelow’s “ Medical Botany.”
Nicotiana. L. 5. 1. Tobacco.
Named after Nicot, ambassador from France to Portugal in
1560, who received the seeds by a Dutchman from Florida. The
common name tobacco, is derived from that of a province of Mexico.
Fourteen species, all that have been described, have been introduced
into England, nearly all of which belong to South America.
The aborigines were found to cultivate this plant over the warmer
parts of the country. Two species are raised as tobacco, but one
is most common and far preferable.
JV. tabacum. L. Cultivated in rich soil, called Virginia Tobacco.
It would be a curious plant were it not for its offensive
smell, nauseous taste, and poisonous qualities. Of all the plants
indigenous to America, very few are more deadly poisons .than
tobacco. The use of it as a luxury, and as a necessary from
habit, is one of the strangest facts in the history of man, as the
plant is offensive at first to nearly all who begin to use it, and as
the natural repugnance of our system must be overcome by severe,
and repeated, and continued effort. Must not the use of so
poisonous a plant have a deleterious effect upon most constitutions
? Is it not probable, that no small portion of the ill health
of those who use tobacco, is to be traced to the power of this
noxious weed taken in so often repeated doses ? The writer
believes himself to have been a great sufferer from its use. At
any rate, after more than twenty years’ use of tobacco, in smoking
or chewing, or both, and suffering under dyspepsia and its
attendant pains and evils, the entire disuse of tobacco for more
than five years, has been followed by the renovation of a wasted
constitution, and the return of excellent health and strength.
Various others, who have liberated themselves from the slavery of
the habit, have experienced the same beneficial results. In no
known case has the disuse, even to total abstinence from the nauseous
weed, been followed by any pernicious consequences.
In any of the modes of using tobacco, the want of neatness of
the habit deserves consideration. To the breath it gives the vilest
perfume, the most nauseating odor, which none but the user and
the tobacco-worm can endure. The teeth it makes offensive, and
22