88 SOLANACIL^. (potato FAMILY.) 



Var. longiloba, EngeL Flowers 1^ to 2^ lines long; calyx-lobes often with recurved 

 tips; capsule mostly only 1 -seeded, enveloped by the withered corolla. 



* * Capsule pointed^ capped or enveloped hy the withered corolla. 



2. C. salina, Engel. Flowers 1^ to 2J lines long delicate white; corolla lobes often 

 overlapping, denticulate; capsule surrounded but not capped by the corolla, usually 

 1 -seeded. — Growing in saline marshes, usually on Salicomia. 



3. C. subinclusa, Dur. «& Hilg. Flowers sessile or nearly so (at length in large 

 clusters), 2^ to 4 lines long; lobes of the corolla short, the tube somewhat urn-shaped, 

 only partly covered by the fleshy, usually reddish calyx. — The most common species 

 growing on coarse herbs and shrubs. 



Order 42. SOLANACEiE. 



Herbs or shrubs, with alternate leaves and no stipules, regular 5-merous flowers on 

 bractless pedicels, a single style and a 2-celled ovary; the fruit a many-seeded berry or 

 capsule. 



This small order of, perhaps, not more than a dozen species west of the Sierra Nevada, 

 and less than 70 in North America, is remarkable for the diversity of properties exhibited 

 by its members, and the almost universal use by man of several of its species. At first 

 view, the classification seems absurd which puts fiery Cayenne pepper and insipid egg 

 plants, the wholesome tomato and deadly night-shade, nutritious potatoes and poisonous 

 tobacco together in one family. A careful examination shows that these seemingly very 

 different plants are much alike after all. The four most important plants of this order — 

 potato, tobacco, red or Cayenne pepper, and tomato — are natives of tropical America, 

 and were consequently not used in the Old World before the sixteenth century. The 

 following ornamental plants of the order are common in cultivation: Jerusalem Cherry 

 {Solanum Pseudo-Capsicum), a small shrub, with red berries; Jasmine Solanum {S. Jas- 

 minoides), a shrubby climber, with a profusion of nearly white blossoms a little smaller 

 than those of the potato; the well-known Matrimony Vine [Lycium vulgare); Tree 

 Datura or Stramonium {Datura arhorea), with hanging flowers six or seven inches in 

 length; Cestrum, a shrub with drooping tubular red flowers in terminal bunches; and 

 Petunia, with funnel-form corollas of various colors. 



Solanum JTanti, Gray, grows along the coast from Santa Barbara Bouthward, and has been reported 

 from Lake County. It is more berbaceons than .S. umbelliferum, and may be distinguished with the aid 

 of a lens by its simple glandular hairs, instead of the branching hairs of the latter species. 



Physalis or Ground Cherry may be found in cultivated ground. Its berries are enclosed by an 

 inflated calyx. 



Datura Meteloides, DC, grows on the Salinas River and southward. The flowers are white or violet 

 tuiged, and 6 to 8 inches long, with a wide border; the capsule nodding. 



