/ 



34 ILLUSTRATIONS OF 



hn^ pedunculatisj solitariisj extra-axillaribus, cernuis, pedunciilo 

 fructifero elongatOy erectOy apice recurvo. 



1. Nicandra pJiysaloideSy Gsievtn. ii. 237, tab. 131; Bot, Mag. 

 2458. Atropa physaloides, Linn, ; Jacq. Obs. iv. tab. 98. Phy- 

 salis datursefolia^ Lam. Ency. ii. 102. Calydermos erosus^ 



K 6f P. ii. 44. Alkekengi, FeuilU, Obs. 724. tab. 1 6.— Planta 

 omnino glabra, radice fibrosa, perennante ; caulibus frondosis, 

 ramosissimis, annuis ; foliis glabris, oblongis, acutis, sinuato- 

 incisis, in petiolum longum decurrentibus ; calyce reticulate^ 

 nitido, aucto ; corolla magna, azurea^ campanulata, fundo al- 

 bidOj maculis 5 obscure cseruleis notata.^ — Peruvia^ v, t\ 



This plant is well known in most tropical countries, where it 

 has become almost indigenous ; it is cultivated in the open air in 

 Kew Gardens, from which source an ample opportunity has been 

 afforded of examining its structure in a living state. It grows 

 there to the height of about 5 feet ; in warmer climates it attains 

 a height of 6 or 8 feet ; its leaves are oblong, irregularly inciso- 

 sinuatc on the margin, with an acute summit, cuneate at base, 

 and decurrent on the channeled petiole; they are about 6^ inches 

 long, upon a petiole of 1^ inch, are about 4 inches broad, and 

 quite glabrous. The peduncle is pendent, about | inch in flower, 

 growing to a length of 1 ^ inch in fruit, when it becomes erect 

 and suddenly deflexed at its thickened apex : the calyx is 9 lines 

 long from its base to the point of its segments, or 1 inch long 

 including its basal lobes; the segments are erect, with their 

 margins undulated and connivent with the adjoining ones for 

 their lower half, salient, producing the appearance as if it were 

 5-winged ; in fruit it preserves the same form^ becoming almost 

 globular and vesicular, and of very reticulated texture^ with the 

 points of its segments conniving and wholly concealing the berry. 

 The corolla is about twice the length of the calyx, broadly cam- 

 panular, swelling gradually upwards from its middle ; the lobes 

 of the border are rounded, somewhat erect and overlapping each 

 other at the base, and suddenly revolute towards their apex, which 

 is very obtuse, with a slight emarginature on each side of a short 

 central point; the stamens are scarcely one-third of the length' ' 

 of the corolla^ arising from as many glands adnate to the base of 

 the tube, forming a kind of fornix about the ovarium, and clothed 

 with densely woolly brachiate hairs ; the filaments above are quite 

 smooth, erect, and incurved at the apex; the style is short, erect, 

 surmounted by a large, globular, woolly or papillose stigma, com- 

 posed of five segments closely connivent ; the ovarium is seated 

 upon a small crenulated yellow gland. The berry is quite glo- 

 bular, about 8 lines in diameter, with three to five cells of unequal 

 ( size, having slender dissepiments^ and being filled with an aqueous 



