BY E. CHEEL. 595 



plants grown from the seeds obtained from Madrid are scarcely 

 distinguishable from the next. 



SoLANUM OPACUM A.Br.(15). (Plate xxx.; xxxiii., fig.c). 



Seeds of this were obtained from the Botanic Gardens, Madrid, 

 Spain. The species was described in 1858, apparently from 

 plants cultivated in Berlin, from seeds originally obtained from 

 Australia. The habitat is given in Index Kewensis as Aus- 

 tralia, but apparently has been overlooked by Bentham, and by 

 Australian botanists. The cultivated plants are identical with 

 the sub-procumbent form, with pubescent branches and leaves, 

 which is common in many parts of the State, especially in the 

 Port Jackson District. It somewhat resembles the S. itiyrum 

 of Great Britain, and has probably been mistaken for that 

 species, but the figure in English Botany, t. 566, seems to me 

 quite distinct from any plant in our collection, except one from 

 Eton Hill, Glevedon, Somerset, collected in 1849; and another 

 from Herb. Laurer (Germany) without any specific locality. 

 These two specimens have a superficial resemblance to S. opacutn. 

 Lowe (50) states that ''the figure in English Botany, tab. 566, 

 represents a luxuriantly succulent, spreading and widely 

 branched state of the plant with thick, juicy, strongly winged 

 stems or branches, shortly stalked, entire repandly waved sub- 

 cordate leaves and larger berries, occurring in Madeira occa- 

 sionally in moist or shady spots." The *S'. nigrum of Forster(26) 

 {S. Forsteri Seemann), recorded for Easter Island, Tahiti, and 

 Vavao, Friendly Islands, which, according to Seemann(68) "have 

 berries the size of peas, and are black, and nearer to S. villosum 

 than to *S^. tiigrum, but with less cut leaves," may probably 

 belong to this species. In the National Herbarium, there are 

 specimens from the following localities, which may be referred 

 to S. opacum : — 



New South Wales: Kogarah (J. H. Gamfield; February, 1898), 

 Government Domains (J. H. Camfield; July, 1903; and E. Cheel. 

 March, 1916), Medlow, Blue Mountains (A. Griffiths; May, 1916), 

 Hill Top, Southern Line (E. Cheel; April, 1916; some berries 

 from these plants were fed to guinfea-pigs by Dr. J. B. Cleland, 

 who states that they ate them without any ill effects), Dubbo (E. 



