Tap. 6461, 
SOLANUM TORREYI. 
Native of Texas and Arkansas. 
Nat. Ord. Sonanacex.—Tribe SoLanEz. 
Genus Sozanum, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 888.) 
Sotanum Torreyi ; suffraticosum, cinerascens, stellato-purpuraceum, aculeis parvis 
rectis nune raris v. obsoletis, foliis breviter petiolatis ovatis ovato-cordatis 
v. hastatissinuato-lobatis, lobis integris v. undulatis obtusis inermibus, cymis 
primum terminalibus 2-3-fidis pedunculis pedicellisque robustis, floribus mutan- 
tibus, calycis lobis triangulari-ovatis, corolla 2 poll. diam., lobis late ovatis acutis 
violaceis plicatis, antheris subequalibus lanceolato-subulatis poro parvo, baccis 
globosis glabris, pedunculis reflexis. 
8. Torreyi, Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. Se. vol. vi. p. 44; Synopt. Fl. N. Am. 
vol, ii. part 1, p. 230, ’ 
8. platyphyllum, Torr. in Amer. Lye. New York, vol. ii. p- 227, not. H. B. K, 
S. mammosum ? Engelm. et Gray, Pl. Lindh. vol. i. p. 46. 
A very handsome and free-flowering hardy Solanum, a 
native of the prairies of the interior of North America, east 
of the Rocky Mountains, where this and other species of 
the genus form a frequent feature in the uniform landscape. 
It varies very much in amount of prickliness, depending a 
good deal on the dryness of the locality and consequent 
luxuriance or poverty of the plant. The young leaf-buds 
are often a bright red-purple colour and velvety texture, | 
and the older leaves, even in a young state, are often tinged 
with pale rose-red underneath. The flowers are large, pro- 
duced copiously, and beautifully veined with red-purple. 
The plant was raised from seed sent from the Cambridge 
(U.S.) Botanic Gardens in 1877, and it flowered in July, 
1878, in the open border of the herbaceous ground at Kew 
Tt has survived the long cold winter of 1878-9. 
Descr. An erect stout herb, with the stem woody below, 
and a running rootstock, covered with a close-set purpura- 
ceous pubescence of stellate hairs, and more or less prickly; 
NOVEMBER Isr, 1879. 
ba | 
