97. SOLANACE.E. 



[5. SOLANUM. 



I. Pedicels soli tai\y, erect or reflexed; fruits erect, spreading 

 or pendent, as long as, or longer than, the pedicels. Annual 

 or biennial : — 



A. Flowers white; berries at first green, afterwards 



becoming red, orange or yellow : — 



1. Fruit not globular :— 



a. Berries tapering, much longer than broad : — 



Fruit stout, mildly pungent, calyx not enclosing 



its base 1. annuum. 



Fruit slender, keenly pungent ; calyx enclosing 



its base ......... var. acuminata 



h. Berries not much, if at all. longer than broad, 



usually obtuse ; calyx not enclosing base of 



berry : — 

 Berries circular in section, subconic or ovate or 



oblong ; flesh thin pungent 



Berries swollen, angular in section, prismatic or 



quadrate or oblate ; flesh very thick, hardly 



pungent 



2. Fruit globular, extremely pungent .... 



B. Flowers purple; berries at first dark purple, afterwards 



becoming orange red, much longer than broad, only 

 slightly pungent ; calyx hardly enclosing the base 

 II. Pedicels 2 or more, erect; fruit always erect, red, shorter 

 than the pedicels, pungent; perennial ; fls. white: — 

 Berries elongate, tapering, base embraced by the calj^x 

 Berries globose or nearly so, base seated on the calyx 



var. ahbreciata. 



var, gfossa. 



var. cerasiformig. 



var. nigra. 



2. ffutescens. 

 var. baeeata. 



1. C. annuum, L. Chillie, Nepal Pepper. 

 Var. acuminata, Fingerh. Gaclili mirich, Vern. 

 Var. abbreYiata, Fingerh. 



Var. grossa, Sendt. Kaphari mirich, Vern. ; Spanish Pepper. 

 Var. cerasiformis. Mill. Cherry pepper. 

 Var. nigra, Prain. Purple Chillie. 

 All more or less cultivated in our area. 



2. C. frutescens, L. Dhan gachh mirich, Dhan lanka mirich, Vern. 



Bird's eye ; Chillie. 



This, as its name implies, is nmch more shrubby than the last and 

 is sometimes 6 ft. high. 



It is said to be quite naturalised in some parts of Bengal. Common in gardens 

 and near gardens in our area. 



Var. baccata, Irish. C. minimum, F.B.I., in part. Brazil Pepper or 

 Pimentas. 



Occasionally cidtivated. 



5. SOLANUM, L. 

 Small trees, shrvibs or herbs, sometimes climbing, iisually with 

 stellate indumentum, sometimes spinous, with alternate or paii'ed, 

 entire or lobed or pinnatifid leaves and cyniose, rarely solitary, 

 regular (or in one section zygomorphous) flowers. Calyx 5-10-toothed 

 or -partite, not or somewhat enlarged in fruit. Corolla rotate, rarely 

 broadly campanulate. Filaments usually shorter than the anthers 

 inserted at the base of the corolla, anthers with the outer wall 

 thicker than the inner, usually conniving in a tube and dehiscent by 

 terminal pores or short slits. Berry usually globose, sometimes 

 elongate in cultivation. Seeds very many, discoid. Embryo curved 

 peripheral. 



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