124 SOLANACEM. [Solanum. 



forms) 3-4-celled, style columnar, stigma small. Fruit a globose 

 or elongated berry. Seeds many, discoid, embryo peripheric. — 

 Species about 800, chiefly in S. America. 



Unarmed : — 



A small usually glabrous herb with white 



flowers • . 1. 8. nigrum. 



A shrub or small tree densely clothed with grey 

 or yellowish stellate tomentum . . ,28. verbascifolivm. 

 Armed: — 



A very prickly diffuse bright-green herb with 

 purple flowers . . . . . . 3. 8. xanthocarpum. 



Shrubs or undershrubs : — 

 Flowers bisexual, in racemose extra-axillary 

 cymes . . . . . • • 4. 8. indicum. 



Poduncles lateral, paired, one bearing a soli- 

 tary fertile flower, the other a raceme of 

 males . . . . - . .5.8. incanum. 



1. S. nigrum, Linn. 8p. PI. 186 ; Eoyle 111. 279 ; F. B. I. iv, 229 ; Watt 

 E.D.; Collett Fl. Siml. 341 ; Train Beng. PL 745 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 263 

 S. rubrum, Mill.; Roxb. Fl. Ind. i, 565.— Vern. Makoi- (Black Night 

 shade.) 



An erect nearly glabroua annual with mnch branched and somewhat 

 angular stems. Leaves petioled, l-3j in. long, ovate or oblong, sinuate- 

 toothed or lobed, petioles about f in. long. Flowers small, drooping- 

 eubumbellate on rather stout extra-axillary peduncles £-f in. long ; 

 pedicels 5-8, slender, £ in. long. Calyx ? in. long, 5-toothed, glabrous or 

 sparsely pubernlous ; teeth small, oblong, obtuse. Corolla white, rarely 

 purple, i in. in diam., divided to below the_ middle into 5 oblong 

 subacute lobes, glabrous outside. Filaments hairy at the base. Ovary 

 globose, glabrous, style hairy towards the base. Berry 5 in. in diam., 

 supported by the saucer-shaped calyx, black, less often red or yellow, 

 smooth and shining. Seeds yellow, minutely pitted. 



A common weed, especially in cultivated ground. Flowers chiefly during 

 the cold season in the plains. Disteib. : Throughout India and up to 

 9,000 ft. on the W. Himalaya ; also in Afghanistan, Baluchistan and in 

 all temperate and tropical regions of the world. The berries and juice 

 are used medicinally, and the leaves and young shoots are eaten as 

 spinach. 



2. S. verbascifolium, Linn. Sp. PL 184 ; Boyle. III. 279 ; F. B. I. iv, 



230 ; Watt E. D. ; Kanjildl For. Fl. 253 ; Gamble Man. Ind. Timb. 508 ; 

 Collett FL Biml. 342 ; Prain Beng. PL 746 ; Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 263 ; 

 Brandis Ind. Trees 489. S. pubescens, Roxb. FL Ind. 564. S. erianthum, 

 Don Prod. 96. — Yern. Aseda (Bijnor), ban-tamdku (Dehra Dun). 



A tall erect unarmed shrub or small tree, densely tomentose with 

 yellowish or grey scurfy stellate hairs. Leaves 4-8 in. long, elliptic- 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate, entire, softly pubescent above, densely 

 woolly beneath, thickly herbaceous ; base usually acute, sometimes 



