229 



butter is made where it abounds. The Pedieularises are acrid, but are eaten 

 by goats. Nearly all this tribe turn black in drying. 

 Examples. Rhinanthus, Pedicularis, Melampyrum. 



CCXIII. SOLANEjE. The Nightshade Tribe, 



Solane-e, Juss. Gen. 124. (1789); R. Brown Prodr. 443. (1810); Ldndl. Synops. 180. (1829.) 



Diagnosis. Monopetalous dicotyledons, with regular flowers, a superior 

 2-celled ovarium, indefinite ovules, a plaited corolla, succulent fruit, and alter- 

 nate leaves. 



Anomalies. Verbascum has irregular flowers. The anthers of Solanum 

 open by pores. Nolana has a deeply 5- or more-lobed ovarium. Nicotiana mul- 

 tivalvis has many cells in the capsule. 



Essential Character. — Calyx 5-parted, seldom 4-parted, persistent, inferior. Corolla 

 monopetalous, hypogynous ; the limb 5-cleft, seldom 4-cleft, regular or somewhat unequal, 

 deciduous ; the (estivation, in the genuine genera of the order, plaited ; in the spurious genera 

 imbricated. Stainens inserted upon the corolla, as many as the segments of the limb, with 

 which they are alternate, 1 sometimes being abortive ; anthers bursting longitudinally, rarely 

 by pores at the apex. Ovarium 2-celled, with 2 polyspermous placenta; style continuous; 

 stigma simple. Pericarpium with 2 or 4 cells, either a capsule with a double dissepiment pa- 

 rallel with the valves, or a berry, with the placenta; adhering to the dissepiment. Seeds nu- 

 merous, sessile ; embryo more or less curved, often out of the centre, lying in fleshy albumen ; 

 radicle next the hilum. — Herbaceous plants or shrubs. Leaves alternate, undivided, or lobed ; 

 the floral ones sometimes double, and placed near each other. Injlorescence variable, often out 

 of the axilla; ; the pedicels without bractea?. 



Affinities. Mr. Brown remarks, that this order is chiefly known from 

 Scrophulaiineaj by the curved or spiral embryo, the plaited aestivation of the 

 corolla, and the flowers being usually regular, with the same number of stamens 

 as lobes. Hence the genera with a corolla not plaited, and at the same time a 

 straight embryo, should either be excluded, or placed in a separate section, 

 along with such as have an imbricated corolla, a slightly curved embryo, and 

 didynamous stamens. Prodr. 444. To this a third section should be added 

 for Nolana, which has a deeply 5- or more-lobed ovarium, each lobe containing 

 one or more cells, in each of which lies a single seed. Nolana paradoxa has 

 a considerable number of little drupes crowded one above the other ; so that this 

 section would appear to differ from true Solanea? nearly as Labiate from Ver- 

 benacea? ; but there is a similar tendency to an excessive multiplication of cells 

 in Nicotiana multivalvis, a genuine plant of the order, in which an additional 

 verticillus of pericarpial leaves is added to the outside of the' two central ones, 

 forming together a singular instance of a many-celled fruit. Through Nolana, 

 Solanea? approach Convolvulaceaj. The position of the placentae and pericar- 

 pial leaves is the same in this order as in Scrophularinepe and their allies, from 

 which its alternate leaves usually distinguish them. Verbascum and Celsia 

 are very near Scrophularinere, to which they are actually referred by Reichen- 

 bach ; but they differ in their alternate leaves and pentandrous flowers. 



Geography. Natives of most parts of the world without the arctic and 

 antarctic circles, especially within the tropics, in which the mass of the order 

 exists, in the form of the genera Solanum and Physalis. Verbascum is wholly 

 extratropical. 



Properties. At first sight this family would seem to offer a strong excep- 

 tion to the general uniformity of structure and property, containing as it does 

 the deadly Nightshade and Henbane, and the wholesome Potato and Tomato; 

 but a little inquiry will explain this apparent anomaly. The tubers of the Po- 



