SOLANACEAB. 38 i 



Family 9. SOLANACEAE Pers. 



Potato Family. 



Herbs, shrubs, vines, or some tropical species trees, with alternate or 

 rarely opposite estipulate leaves, and perfect regular, or nearly regular, 

 cymose flowers. Calyx inferior, mostly 5-lobed. Corolla gamopetalous, 

 mostly 5-lobed, the lobes induplicate-valvate or plicate in the bud. 

 Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla and alternate with them, 

 inserted on the tube, all perfect in the following genera; anthers various, 

 2-celled, apically or longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary superior, 2-eelled 

 (rarely 3-5-celled) ; ovules numerous on the axile placentae, anatropous or 

 amphitropous; style slender, simple; stigma terminal; fruit a berry or 

 capsule. Seeds numerous ; endosperm fleshy ; cotyledons semiterete. About 

 75 genera and 1,750 species, most abundant in tropical regions. 



Fruit a berry. 



Corolla plicate. 



Berry enclosed in the accrescent calyx. 1. Phi/salif,. 



Berry not enclosed in the calyx. 2. Solatium. 



Corolla not plicate, or scarcely plicate. 



Corolla rotate. 3. Capsicum. 



Corolla salverform to funnelform. 



Stamens unequal ; filaments adnate to the mouth of the 



corolla-tube. 4. Lycium. 



Stamens equal or nearly so ; filaments adnate to about the 



middle of the corolla-tube. 5. Cestnun. 



Fruit a capsule. 



Calyx tubular, at length circumscissile. 6. Datura. 



Calyx ovoid or campanulate, 5-cleft. 7. Nicotiana. 



1. PHYSALIS L. Sp. PI. 182. 1753. 



Herbs, sometimes a little woody below, with entire or sinuately toothed 

 leaves. Peduncles slender, in our species solitary in the axils. Calyx campanu- 

 late, 5-toothed, in fruit enlarged and bladdery-inflated, membranous, 5-angled, 

 or prominently 10-ribbed and reticulate, wholly enclosing the pulpy berry. 

 Corolla often with a brownish or purplish center, open-campanulate, or rarely 

 campanulate-rotate, plicate. Stamens inserted near the base of the corolla ; 

 anthers oblong, opening by longitudinal slits. Style slender, somewhat bent; 

 stigma minutely 2-cleft. Seeds numerous, kidney-shaped, flattened. [Greek, 

 bladder, referring to the inflated calyx.] The number of recognized species 

 is about 50, widely distributed. Type species: Physalis Alkekengi L. 



Fruiting calyx 5-angled; leaves narrowed at the base. 1. P.angulata. 



Fruiting calyx 5-winged ; leaves cordate, rounded or obtuse at the 

 base. 



Glabrous, or nearly so. - /'. turhinata. 



Densely pubescent. 3. P. pubcsct na. 



1. Physalis angulata L. Sp. PI. 183. 1753. 



Physalis linkiana Dunal, in DC. Prodr. 13 1 : 448. 1852. 



Erect, 4-9 dm. high, glabrous; stem angled; leaves ovate, usually with 

 cuneate base and long-acuminate teeth, 5-6.5 cm. long, on slender petioles, 

 thin, the veins not prominent; peduncles slender, 2-3 cm. long, erect, in fruit 

 often reflexed but seldom exceeding the fruiting calyx; calyx-teeth triangular 

 to lanceolate, generally shorter than the tube; corolla 5-10 cm. in diameter; 

 anthers purplish tinged; fruiting calyx about 3 cm. long, ovoid, not promi- 

 nently angled, at last nearly filled by the yellow berry. 



Waste places, Andros Mini New Providence: Bermuda; southern United smtes; 

 West Indies and continental tropical America. Cut-leaved GboUND-Chbbbz. POPPHHS. 



