Tas. 6283. 
SOLANUM ACANTHODES. 
Natiwe of Brazil ? 
Nat. Ord. Sotanack&.—Tribe Soranna. 
Genus Soranum, Linn. (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 888.) 
Sonantm «acanthodes ; fruticosum, furfuraceo-tomentosum et aculeatum, aculeis 
validis rectis v. lente curvis pallidis, foliis late obovato- v. ovato-oblongis 
pinnatifidis pubescentibus basi cordato 2-lobis, lobis horizontalibus obtusis 
sinnato-lobulatis, costa nervisque rectangularibus ochraceis utrinque aculeatis, 
petiolo robusto cylindraceo, cymis scorpioideis lateralibus 6-10-floris, pedi- 
cellis aculeolatis, alabastris ovoideis semipollicaribus, calycis parvi setosi tubo 
hemispherico lobis ovato-lanceolatis subacutis, corolla ampla 24 poll. diam. 
lobis ovato-rotundatis late marginatis, antheris lineari-oblongis 2 porosis, ovario 
glabro. 
This fine Solanum was for some years an ornament of the 
Palm-stove at Kew, but I am not certain of its origin ; it 
bore the name of S. acanthocalyx, Klotzsch; and as that 
author was keeper of the Royal Herbarium of Berlin at the 
time, it is probable that the plant was derived from the 
Berlin garden. It is not however the true S. acanthocalyz, 
which is a Mozambique plant, described as having two 
flowered peduncles which are densely aculeate. Its nearest 
ally is undoubtedly the S. macranthum, Dunal (DC. Prod. vol. 
xiii. pars 2, p. 315), a native of the Amazons, of which 
there are fine specimens from Spruce in the Herbarium at Kew, 
which differ in the broader, shorter, more rounded sinuately- 
lobed leaves, in the much larger buds and calyx, which and 
the pedicels are not at all or very rarely aculeate, not densely 
shortly setose asin our plants. The S. macranthum of this 
work again (t. 4138), and of the Revue Horticole (1867, p. 
132) is a very different plant, with the leaf-blade decurrent 
on the petiole, and is the §S. marionense, Poit. I find no 
species out of the many hundred in the Kew Herbarium, nor 
in the descriptions of Dunal, at all agreeing in this, of which 
I am obliged reluctantly to make a new species. The figure 
was made in August, 1863. 
Descr. Shrubby, clothed with a mealy tomentum, and 
scattered stout, pale, straight, or slightly curved prickles. Stem 
MARCH Ist, 1877, 
