224 SOLANACE.E. 



styles. — Arcliiv. Apoth. viii. 54; Reichenb. Ic. Crit. t. 693; Choisy, I.e. C. dmslfiora, 

 So^^er-Willem. in Act. Soc. Linn. Far. iv. 281. — Flax-fields of Europe, doing much injury, 

 occasionally appearing in those of the Atlantic States. (Adv. from Eu.) 



Okder XCV. SOLANACEJi. 



Herbs, shrubs, or even trees, commonly rank-scented, with watery juice, alternate 

 leaves and no stipules ; the- inflorescence properly terininal and cymose, but 

 variously modified, sometimes scorpioid-racemiform in the manner of Borraginacece 

 and HydrophyUacece, the pedicels either not accompanied by bracts or not in their 

 axils ; flowers perfect and regular (or only slightly irregular) and 5-4-merous ; 

 the stamens as many as and alternate with the corolla-lobes ; these induplicate- 

 valvate or plicate (rarely merely imbricate) in the bud ; ovary wholly free, nor- 

 mally 2-celled with indefinitely many-ovuled axile placentas, and surmounted by 

 an undivided style : stigma entire or sometimes bilamellar ; ovules anatropous or 

 amphitropous ; fruit either capsular or baccate ; embr3'o terete and incurved or 

 coiled, or sometimes almost straight, in fleshy albumen, the cotyledons rarely 

 much broader than the radicle. The leaves, although never truly opposite, are 

 often unequally geminate, so as to appear so. Obviously distinguished from Gon- 

 volvulacece by the greater number and the character of the seeds, less definitely so 

 from Scrophidnriacece by the regular flowers with isomerous stamens and plicate 

 or valvate aestivation of the corolla, and centrifugal inflorescence, but in the last 

 tribe nearly confluent with that order by the imperfection or abortion of one or 

 three of the stamens, and some obliquity and bilabiate imbrication of the limb or 

 lobes of the corolla. Nicaudra has a regularly 3-5-celled ovary ; that of Lycoper- 

 sicum, &c., becomes several-celled in cultivation ; that of Datura is spuriously 

 4-celled. 



Bassovia ? HKBEPODA, Duual in DC. Prodr. xiii. 407, characterized from a specimen com- 

 municated to De CandoUe by Teinturier of New Orleans, in fruit only, is a mere riddle. It is 

 said to resemble Bassovia lucida. 



WiTiiANiA MoRisoxi, Dunal, 1. c, is doubtless not a Virginian or even a Mexican i)lant. 

 From the figure it is likely to have been W. somni/em, as Dunal suggested. 



TiuuE I. SOLANEiE. Corolla (mostly short) with the regular limb plicate or val- 

 vate in the bud, usually both, i.e. the sinuses or what answers to them plicate and the 

 edges of the lobes induplicate. Stamens (normally 5) all perfect. Fruit baccate 

 or at least indehiscent, sometimes nearly dry. Seeds flattened: embryo curved or 

 coiled, slender ; the semiterete cotyledons not broader than tlie radicle. 



* Anthers longer than tlieir filamonts, either connivent or connate into a cone or cylinder : 

 corolla rotate : calyx mostly unchanged in fruit: parts of the flower 5 or varying to 

 more, especially in cultivation. 



1. LYCOPERSICUM. Antliers connate into a pointed cone, tipped with an empty closed 

 acumination ; the cells dehiscent longitudinally down the inner face. Otiierwise as in the 

 next, but leaves ahvays pinnately compound. 



2. SOLANUM. Anthers connivent or liglitly connate : the cells opening at the apex by a 

 pore or short slit, and sometimes also longitudinally dehiscent even to the base; the con- 

 nective inconspicuous or obsolete. 



* * Anthers unconnected, mostly shorter than their filaments, destitute of terminal pores, 

 dehiscent longitudinally. 



H— Calyx not investing the fruit, nor much changing under it. 



3. CAPSICUM. Calyx short, either truncate or merely 5-6-dentate. Corolla rotate, 

 deeply 5-0-cleft, valvate in the bud, not plicate. Anthers oblong or somewliat cordate. 

 Berry, or juiceless and thin-coriaceous pericarp, acrid-pungent, girt only at base by the 

 nearly unchanged calyx. 



