PHANEROGAMIA 661 



Order 6. Personatae 



The Personatae are connected by the small family Nolanaceae to 

 the Convolvulaceae, from which the Tubiflorae are also derived. The 

 flowers are actinomorphic or zygomorphic. Their typical form has 

 also the floral formula K5, C(5), A 5, G(2). There are, however, 

 no false septa in the ovary and the number of ovules is usually a 

 larger one. 



Family 1. Solanaceae. Herbs or small woody plants, with alter- 

 nate, exstipulate leaves, and nearly always actinomorphic flowers, 

 K5, C(5), A5, G(2). Corolla expanded or tubular; petals plaited 

 in the bud. Ovary bilocular, septum inclined obliquely to the 

 median plane. Ovules numerous, on a thick placenta. Fruit, a 

 capsule or a berry. Seeds with endosperm ; embryo usually curved 

 (Fig. 738). In many Solanaceae, as will be 

 further referred to in the special descriptions 

 below, the inflorescences exhibit apparent, extra- 

 axillary branches and paired leaves. Anatomi- 

 cally the order is characterised by possessing 

 bicollateral vascular bundles. 



IMPORTANT GENEKA AND SPECIES. () Fruit, a 

 berry : The Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna, Fig. 

 739) is a perennial herb of shrubby habit, springing 

 from an underground rhizome. It is a native of Europe FIG. 738. Solanaceae. Floral 

 and western Asia, occurring in less dense woods. The diagram (Petunia). 



shoots are, to begin with, orthotropous and radial, and 



bear alternate leaves and a terminal flower, which only rarely produces fruit. 

 Below this terminal flower branching and the development of leaves commences 

 in. as a rule, three, equally vigorous, lateral shoots. Each lateral branch with its 

 further cincinnal branching forks and assumes a dorsiventral habit. By the pre- 

 dominance of one of the two axillary shoots and the carrying up of the subtending 

 bract upon it, the terminal flower at each grade of branching becomes apparently 

 axillary. The large, subtending bract is borne up beside the smaller one belonging 

 to the next higher axillary bud, which is usually undeveloped, so that the leaves 

 appear to be borne in pairs. Flower with a short, wide, tubular corolla of a dirty 

 purple colour. Calyx enlarging after fertilisation beneath the bluish-black fruit ; 

 the position of the obliquely placed septum of the latter is recognisable externally 

 by the presence of a shallow groove. 



Many species of Solanum occur as weeds. Flowers actinomorphic. S. niyrum, 

 Nightshade ; S. dulcamara, Bitter-sweet (Fig. 740), is a shrubby plant, climbing by 

 HUM us of its stems and petioles, and especially common in thickets by the banks 

 of streams and similar situations. S. tuberosum, the Potato. Lycopcrsicum, the 

 Tomato. Capsicum annuum, Spanish Pepper, has a dry, berry-like fruit. These 

 plants resemble Atropa in their branching and the position of their leaves. 



/ Fruit a capsule : Datura Stramonium, Thorn-apple (Fig. -741), is an annual 

 plant, widely spread in Europe, Asia, and N. America. It has incised, palmately- 

 veined leaves and large, white, terminal flowers. The spiny fruits split at the 

 summit into four valves. The first terminal flower is developed early, and the 

 plant then exhibits profuse dichasial branching. Since the subtending leaves are 



