SOLANACEAE 229 



turn (which is most generally cultivated) is quite prickly, and bears 

 a dark purple berry, which sometimes attains to an enormous size, 

 and is roundish, or obovoid. 



5. S. Carolinense, L. Stem suffruticose, branching ; leaves ovate- 

 oblong, acute, sinuate-angled and often subhastate, prickly on both 

 sides ; flowers in loose simple lateral racemes ; fruit globose, small, 

 orange-yellow. 

 CAROLINIAN SOLANUM. Horse-Nettle. 



Perennial. Stem 1 to near 2 feet high, annual, but firm and almost shrubby, 

 armed with sharp spreading prickles. Leaves 4 to 6 inches long, stellately hirsute ; 

 petioles half an inch to 1% inches long. Racemes opposite to and often longer than 

 the leaves ; pedicels about half an inch in length ; corolla purplish or bluish-white. 

 Berries *4 to % of an inch in diameter. 

 Hob. Pastures, &c. Nat. of the Southern States. FL July. Fr. Octo. 



Obs. This is an exceedingly pernicious weed, and the roots so 

 tenacious of life that, when once fully introduced, it is almost im- 

 practicable to get rid of it. It was probably introduced from the 

 South, by the late HUMPHRY MARSHALL, into his Botanic Garden 

 at Marshallton, whence it has gradually extended itself round the 

 neighborhood ; and strongly illustrates the necessity of caution, in 

 admitting mere Botanical curiosities into good agricultural districts. 



ORDER LXXI. GENTIANACEAE. 



Smooth herbs, with a colorless bitter juice; Zeaves mostly opposite, entire and sessile ; 

 stipules none ; flowers regular ; stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla, and 

 alternate with them ; anthers opening on one side; ovary formed of 2 united carpels, 

 1-cellcd, or half 2-celled, with parietal placentae; capsule 2-valved, septicidal, 

 many-seeded; seeds with fleshy albumen. 



An Order containing many beautiful species, and some of them valuable for 

 their medicinal properties. 



SUBORDER I. GENTIA^NEAE. 



Corolla-lobes, in the bud, twisted against the sun (i. e. to the left, if you look into 

 the centre of the flower); seed-coat membranaceous, cellular. 



f Style distinct, slender, deciduous ; anthers curved, or spiral. 

 331. SABBAT'IA, Adam. 



[Dedicated to Liberatus Sabbati ; an Italian Botanist.] 



Calyx 5- to 12-parted. Corolla sub-rotate, 5- to 12-lobed. Anthers 

 at first erect, finally recurved. Style 2-parted, the branches stig- 

 matiferous, at length spirally twisted. Slender biennials ? flowers 

 in a terminal corymbose panicle. 



1. S. aiiarularis, Punk. Stem acutely 4-angled; leaves oblong- 

 ovate, clasping; calyx 5- or 6-parted, the segments lance-linear. 

 ANGULAR SABBATIA. American Centaury. 



SUm 12 to 18 inches high, often much branched and bushy above ; branches 

 opposite and erect. Leaves about an inch long, rather acute. Corolla twice the 

 length of the calyx, pale red. Capsule oblong-ovoid, mucronate, with a keeled 

 suture on each side. 

 Hob. Sterile old fields ; serpentine-rocks : frequent. FL July. Fr. Sept. 



