H. nìger, L. (Black Henbane.) Biennial or annual; leaves clasping, sinuate-toothed and angled; flowers sessile, in one-sided leafy spikes; corolla dull yellowish, strongly reticulated with purple veins.—Escaped from gardens to roadsides. (Adv. from Eu.)
7. DATÙRA, L. Jamestown-Weed. Thorn-Apple.
Calyx prismatic, 5-toothed, separating transversely above the base in fruit, the upper part falling away. Corolla funnel-form, with a large and spreading 5–10-toothed plaited border. Stigma 2-lipped. Capsule globular, prickly, 4-valved, 2-celled, with 2 thick placentæ; projected from the axis into the middle of the cells, and connected with the walls by an imperfect false partition, so that the capsule is 4-celled except near the top, the placentæ as if on the middle of these false partitions. Seeds rather large, flat.—Rank weeds, narcotic-poisonous, with ovate leaves, and large showy flowers on short peduncles in the forks of the branching stem; produced all summer and autumn. (Altered from the Arabic name, Tatorah.)
D. Stramònium, L. (Common Stramonium or Thorn Apple.) Annual, glabrous; leaves ovate, sinuate-toothed or angled; stem green; corolla white (3´ long), the border with 5 teeth; lower prickles of the capsule mostly shorter.—Waste grounds; a well-known ill-scented weed. (Adv. from Asia?)
D. Tátula, L. (Purple T.) Mostly taller; stem purple; corolla pale violet-purple; prickles of the capsule nearly equal.—Waste grounds, in the Atlantic States. (Adv. from trop. Amer.)
8. NICOTIÀNA, Tourn. Tobacco.
Calyx tubular-bell-shaped, 5-cleft. Corolla funnel-form or salver-form, usually with a long tube; the plaited border 5-lobed. Stigma capitate. Capsule 2-celled, 2–4-valved from the apex. Seeds minute.—Rank acrid-narcotic herbs, mostly clammy-pubescent, with ample entire leaves, and racemed or panicled flowers. (Named after John Nicot, who was thought to have introduced Tobacco (N. Tabácum, L.) into Europe.)
N. rústica, L. (Wild Tobacco.) Annual; leaves ovate, petioled; tube of the dull greenish-yellow corolla cylindrical, two thirds longer than the calyx, the lobes rounded.—Old fields, from N. Y. westward and southward; a relic of cultivation by the Indians. (Of unknown nativity.)
Order 75. SCROPHULARIÀCEÆ. (Figwort Family.)
Chiefly herbs (rarely trees), with didynamous stamens (or perfect stamens often only 2, rarely 5) inserted on the tube of the 2-lipped or more or less irregular corolla, the lobes of which are imbricated in the bud; fruit a 2-celled and usually many-seeded capsule, with the placentæ; in the axis; seeds anatropous, or amphitropous, with a small embryo in copious albumen.—Style single; stigma entire or 2-lobed. Leaves and inflorescence various; but the flowers not terminal in any genuine representatives of the order.—A large order of bitterish plants, some of them narcotic-poisonous.