128 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



The Tobacco plant is a member of this Order, and 

 has recently been grown in East Anglia for com- 

 mercial purposes, but in spite of the relatively dry 

 atmosphere on the east coast the climate is not suit- 

 able for the bleaching of the leaves for use. Allied 

 to the last is the garden Petunia. In this group 

 is included Mandragora or the true Mandrake, in 

 place of v^^hich Black and White Bryony have been 

 used in this country as counterfeits. Other well- 

 known types are Winter-cherry, Capsicum (Cayenne 

 Pepper), and Schizanthus, or Poor Man's Orchid. In 

 the genus Solanum are included the Egg plant and 

 the Potato. In the same Order the Tomato or 

 Love-apple is included. 



There are over fifteen hundred species included in 

 seventy-two genera. The members of the group 

 flourish in the temperate and tropical regions. A 

 large number are natives of Central and South 

 America. In the Old World only the Solanaceae 

 are found. 



They are mainly herbaceous perennials, or shrubs, 

 or rarely small and soft-wooded trees. The leaves 

 are alternate in the vegetative part, or in pairs in 

 the inflorescence, but they may be more or less 

 opposite, and are lobed or pinnate. There are no 

 stipules, but a small leaf may occur at the base of 

 the other leaves. 



The inflorescence is usually a cyme, but the flowers 

 may be solitary. They are regular or sometimes 

 zygomorphic. The calyx is inferior, five-partite, and 



