Erect coarse viscid-pubescent narcotic annual biennial or perennial herbs, with alternate mostly lobed or pinnatifid leaves, and large nearly regular flowers, the lower solitary in the axils, the upper in a more or less i-sided spike or raceme. Calyx urn-shaped or narrowly campanulate, 5-cleft, striate, enlarged and enclosing the capsule in fruit. Corolla funnelform, the limb somewhat oblique, 5-cleft, the lobes more or less unequal, spreading. Stamens declined, mostly exserted; filaments filiform; anthers oblong or ovate, their sacs longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 2-celled; style slender; stigma capitate. Capsule 2-celled, circum-scissile above the middle. [Greek, hog-bean.]

About 15 species, natives of the Mediterranean region, the following typical.

1. Hyoscyamus Niger L. Black Henbane. Hog's-Bean

Fig. 3728

Hyoscyamus niger L. Sp. Pl. 179. 1753.

Annual or biennial, villous and viscid, of an ill odor; stem stout, 1°-2 1/2° high. Leaves ovate, lanceolate, or oblong in outline, 3'-7' long, acute or acuminate at the apex, sessile, or the upper clasping the stem, irregularly lobed, cleft or pinnatifid; flowers very short-pedicelled, 1'-2' broad; calyx-lobes triangular-ovate, acute; corolla greenish-yellow, strongly reticulated with purple veins, its lobes ovate, obtusish; capsule globose-oblong, about 5" high.

In waste places, Nova Scotia to Ontario, New York and Michigan. Naturalized from Europe. Fetid nightshade. Insane-root. Belene. Chenile. Poison-tobacco. June - Sept.