Tab. 5823. 

 SOLANUM venustum. 



Graceful Solatium. 



Nat. Ord. Solane^;. — Pentandria Monogynia. 

 Gen. Char. {Vide supra, Tab. 5424.) 



Solanum venustum ; fruticosum, inerme, ramia flexuosis glabris, foliis lon- 

 giuscule petiolatis ovato-oblongis acuminatis basi rotundatis simplicibus 

 vel inferne 2 vel 3-sectis integerrimis membranaceis supra pilis minu- 

 tisaimis conspersis subtus glabriusculis ciliolatis, petiolis interne 

 hirtellis, paniculis simplicibus terminalibus tardius lateralibus cernuis, 

 rachi ramisque flexuosis glabris, floribus longiuscule pedicellatis ra- 

 cemosis, calyce urceolato abbreviato— 5-dentato glabro, corolla rotata 

 profunde 5-fida, laciniis ovatis acutis villosulo-ciliatis, antheris bre- 

 vibus liberis, ovario glabro. 



Solanum venustum, Kunth. Spec. Nov. Emend. Herb. Reg. Berol., p. 10. 

 Dunal in D. C. Prod., vol. xiii. p. 83. 



This is one of the most graceful and free- flowering species 

 of Solanum in cultivation, a native of Brazil, but of what pro- 

 vince I am ignorant. The specimen here figured flowers in 

 the cooler wing of the Palm House of the Royal Gardens, 

 in November, and has been there for some considerable period, 

 but unfortunately all record of its origin and sender's name is 

 lost, and it is only through the description in De Candolle's 

 Prodromus that it has been identified, there being no speci- 

 men of it in the Kew Herbaria. From the temperature 

 at which it flowers under cultivation, it is probably a native 

 of the southern provinces of Brazil or the La Plata district. 



Bescr. A slender unarmed climber, eight to ten feet high ; 

 stems branched, as thick as a crowquill, green, and as well 

 as the leaves, minutely pubescent. Leaves membranous, 

 bright green, alternate, on slender petioles, uppermost entire, 

 ovate-lanceolate, narrowed into rather blunt apices ; lower 

 leaves and those about the inflorescence pinnately trifoliolate, 



FEBRUARY lt>T, 1870 



