Common Nightshade.

Botanical name: 

Solanum vulgare.

Also see: Common Nightshade - Deadly Nightshade.

A wild plant, that over-runs gardens, and all other cultivated places, if not continually weeded out. It grows two feet high; the stalks are roundish, thick, but not very erect or strong, and of a dusky green. The leaves are broad and roundish, but they terminate in a point. They are of a dark green colour, and stand on foot stalks. The flowers grow in little clusters, ten or a dozen in a bunch; they are white, with a yellowish centre, and they are succeeded by round black berries.

The leaves are used fresh, and only externally. They are very cooling, and applied bruised to inflammations, scalds, burns, and troublesome eruptions on the skin.


The Family Herbal, 1812, was written by John Hill.