Herbs or, rarely, shrubs, with rank-scented, often poisonous, foliage, and colorless juice. Leaves alternate. Stamens five, equal, inserted on the corolla. Fruit a capsule or berry. This order owes its poisonous qualities to the presence of alkaloids such as atropine.
A Manual of Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy, 1917, was written by Lucius E. Sayre, B.S. Ph. M.