SOLANACEAE 449 



SOLANACEAE. Nightshade Family' 



Herbs or shrubs with alternate leaves. Flowers complete and regular, borne 

 solitary and terminal, or seeming as if axillary, or disposed in cymes or panicles or 

 in clusters resembling umbels or racemes. Calyx 5-cleft or -toothed, usually per- 

 sistent. Corolla 5-lobed, the lobes valvate or imbricate and mostly plicate in the 

 bud. Stamens 5, inserted on the coroUa and alternate with its divisions. Ovary 

 superior, 2-eelled, usually seated on a conspicuous hypogj-nous disk, the 2 carpels 

 obliquely placed with reference to the median plane ; style 1 ; stigma entire or 

 sometimes 2-lobed. Fruit a berry or capsule. Seeds usually numerous, borne on 

 thick axile placentae, the embryo embedded in endosperm. — The branching is sym- 

 podial and all flowers are actually terminal and solitary, or borne in cymes. The 

 cymes may be simple, or become umbel-like in form, or compound. When a growing 

 axillary shoot thrusts the terminal flower to one side and takes up a terminal posi- 

 tion and is in turn thrust aside by the next axillary shoot, and so on, then in such 

 a case the cyme becomes one-sided and raceme-like and is bracted or frequently 

 bractless. A panicle in this family is often composed of such false racemes or of 

 clusters of 1 to 4-flowered cj^mes scattered along its branches. The bracts are ad- 

 nate to the growing axillary branches and carried up a distance on them. It is for 

 such a reason that the upper leaves in Petunia are opposite. The seeds are generally 

 reniform. Datura has a falsely 4-celled capsule. The basis for the primary divi- 

 sion in the genus key is after R. von Wettstein (cf . Bugler & Prantl, Nat. Pflzfam. 

 4''':10). Distinguished on the whole by its poisonous or acrid properties, this 

 family includes such cultivated plants as Chilies, Cayenne Pepper, Tomato, Potato, 

 Ground Cherry, Bitter-sweet, Belladonna and Petunia. — Genera about 66, species 

 about 1500, all continents. 



Bibliog. — Bernhardi, J. J., tiber die Arten der Gattung Datura (Linnaea 8: Litt.-Ber. 113- 

 144, — 1833). Miers, John, On the genus Lvcium (Ann. cS; Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, 14:1-20, 

 131-141, 182-194, 336-346,-1854). Gray, 'A., Lycia Amerieae Borealis (Proe. Am. Acad. 

 6:45-48,-1862) ; Synopsis of N. Am. species of Physalis (I.e. 10:62-68,-1874) ; Saracha Ruiz 

 & Pav., sect. Chamaesaracha (I.e. 62). Eydberg, P. A. (N. Am. species of Physalis and related 

 genera (Mem. Torr. Club 4:297-374, — 1896) ; there are a good many geographic errors in this 

 paper which may Tvell be considered in connection with the statements made in the earlier para- 

 graphs of the author's introduction. Comes, O., Monog. du genre Nicotiana (pp. 1-80, pis. 

 1-14, — 1899). Parish, S. B., A group of W. Am. Solanums (Proe. Cal. Acad. ser. 3, Bot. 2:159- 

 172, — 1901. East, E. M., A study of hybrids between Nicotiana bigelovii and N. quadrivalvis 

 (Bot. Gaz. 53:243-248,-1912). Safiford, W. E., Synopsis of the genus Datura (Jour. Wash. 

 Acad. Sci. 11:173-189, figs. 1-3, — 1921); Datura, an inviting genus for the study of heredity 

 (Jour. Hered. 12:178-190, figs. 10-16,-1921). Ball, W. S., & Bobbins, W. W., White Horse 

 Nettle (Cal. Dept. Agr. Mo. Bull. 21 : 348-349, col. pi.,— 1932). Hitchcock, 0. L., A monographic 

 study of the genus Lycium of the western hemisphere (Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 19:179-374, pis. 

 12-24, — 1932), monographia praeclara; The identity of Lycium brevipes (Lflts. W. Bot. 1:57- 

 58, — 1933). Wiggins, Ira K., A report on several species of Lycium from the sw. deserts (Contrib. 

 Dudley Herb. 1:197-206, pis. 18-19,-1934). 



Uncertain geographic records. — Many early records list various species as Califomian through 

 geographic error, often assisted by erroneous determination. Species which indisputably occur 

 just beyond our boundaries are often also listed as Califomian without specific supporting facts. 

 Plant collections made in the region of the lower Colorado River in early days were, as to field 

 origin, often incorrectly or indefinitely labeled at a time when state boundaries were not clearly 

 known. These considerations involve various families and especially certain species of the Solana- 

 ceae. Physalis cinerascens Hitchc, Physalis lobata Torr., Phj'salis viscosa L., Physalis muriculata 

 Greene, Solanum interius Rydb., Chamaesaracha conioides Britt. and Chamaesaracha coronopus 

 Gray are set down as of "California" by P. A. Rydberg (North American species of Physalis and 

 related genera) or by Wooton and Standley, Flora of New Mexico. Rydberg attributes (Mem. 

 Torr. Club 4:331) the type collection (Buckminster) of Chamaesaracha physaloides Greene to 

 California when it should be Arizona. In these instances, and in many other Instances in other 



' The manuscript of Solanaceae has been read and critical notes and analyses of Nicotiana 

 supplied by Helen-Mar Wheeler, an investigator penetrating in observation, sound in experiment 

 and discerning in judgment, who as Research Associate is a member of the staff long engaged 

 with "Investigations on the genus Nicotiana" in the Department of Botany, University of 

 California. 



