232 



FAMILIES OF FLOWEEING PLANTS 



Fig. 201. The Wild Bergamot {Monarda fistulosa). After Britton and 



Brown, 111. Fl. Northeast U. S. 



plant, belongs with the mints, as does also the little ground ivy {GU- 

 coma). The Pacific Coast has a number of ornamental species in 

 Rmnona, Stachys and Monardella. The largest flowered of our eastern 

 mints are found in Fhysostegia, the false dragon-head. The general 

 type of labiate flower is shown in Fig. 202. 



Family Nolanaceae. Nolana Family. Consists of about 40 species, 

 comprised in the single genus Nolana, which was formerly included in 

 the Solanaceae. They are South American herbs or undershrubs, with 

 rather pretty flowers, very similar in structure to the nightshades. 



Family Solanaceae. Nightshade Famil3^ Includes about 70 genera 

 and 1600 species, most abundant in the tropics. They are herbs, shrubs 

 or vines, or rarely trees, with usually alternate leaves and cymose 

 flowers. The calyx and corolla are 5-lobed, the latter with the lobes 

 plicate (folded) in the bud. Stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla 

 and alternate with them, all equal except in one genus. Ovary superior, 

 2-celled, becoming in fruit a berry or a capsule with numerous seeds. 



The family, as a whole, possesses strongly narcotic and poisonous 

 properties. These are particularly prominent in Atropa, which yields 

 the drug belladonna ; in Hyoscyamus, the henbane ; and in many species 

 of Solanum or nightshade. The latter is the largest genus of the family, 

 containing fully 900 species, exhibiting a wide variety of form and uses. 

 The most important from the economic standpoint is the potato {Sola- 

 num tuberosum), the tubers of which lose their poisonous principle by 



