236 SolanacecE. \Phy sails. 



The fruits are eaten. The root is a valued native medicine in fevers, 

 •coughs, and indigestion. 



10. S. trilobatum, L. Sp. PL 188 (1753). Wal-tibbatu, S. 

 Tutuvalai, T. 



Moon Cat. 16. Thw. Enum. 217. C. P. 1906. 



Fl. B. Ind. iv. 237. Wight, Ic. t. 854. Bot. Mag. t. 6866. 



A small undershrub, subscandent by its numerous hooked 

 prickles, stems slender with long divaricate branches, with a 

 few stellate hairs on the young shoots, otherwise glabrous, 

 provided with many flattened, hooked, decurved, very sharp 

 prickles; 1. small, |-i?; in., rotund-ovate in outline, obtuse, 

 irregularly 3- or 5-lobed, glabrous, often with 2 or 3 small 

 curved prickles on midrib, petiole as long as 1., prickly; fl. 

 large on long divaricate or reflexed glabrous ped., cymes 

 extra-axillary, short, racemose, 3-9-flowered, nearly sessile; 

 cal, small, slightly stellate-hairy, segm. lanceolate, acute; cor. 

 \\-\\ in. diam., stellate-pubescent outside, lobes very deep, 

 oblong-oval, obtuse, usually reflexed ; berry \ in., smooth, 

 scarlet. 



Waste ground in the dry region, very common. Fl. Dec.-Feb. ; rich 

 violet-purple. 



Also in S. India and Malay Peninsula. 



This has the most handsome flowers of our species. The berries are 

 €aten, and the whole plant is used as a medicine in catarrhal fevers. 



2. PKVSAZiIS, L. 



Annual, 1. alt, fl. small, solitary; cal. broadly campanulate, 

 becoming much enlarged and inflated in fruit, segm. 5, short; 

 cor. funnel-shaped, stam. 5, inserted on base of cor.-tube, not 

 connivent, anth. dehiscing by vertical slits; ov. 2-celled, with 

 very numerous ovules ; fruit a berry, enclosed in the loose, 

 inflated, membranous, enlarged cal., seeds compressed, reni- 

 form, finely muriculatc, embryo curved round endosperm. — 

 Sp. 30; I in Fl. B. I lid. 



P. minima, L. Sp. PL 183 (1753). IWCottu, Hin-mottu, S. 



Herm. Hort. Acad. Lugd.-Bat. 569. Burm. Thes. 11. Moon Cat. 15. 

 P. Hcrmamii, Dun. in DC. Prod. xiii. i, 444. Thw. Enum. 217. C. P. 

 2866. 



Fl. B. Ind. iv. 238. Herm. Hort. Acad. Lugd.-Bat. t. 571. Wight, 

 111. t. 166 B, f. 6. 



Stem erect, 6-9 in., striate, slightly hairy, with many long 

 branches; 1. i-U in., ovate, cuneate at base, acute, shallowly 

 toothed or lobed, glabrous, or with a few minute stellate hairs. 



