NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. Solanaceae. 



The fruit, though often narcotic and extremely poison* 

 ous, is sometimes harmless and edible ; usually a many- 

 seeded round berry with the calyx generally adhering to 

 its base. The potato and the tomato are the widest- 

 known members of the family. 



A tall, almost shrublike plant with vari- 



Bifurlwe^t^ aWe dai ' k gl ' een leaVeS fr ° m OVate to tri " 

 Solanum angular in outline, some lobed and others 



Dulcamara formed of three leaflets, the two lateral 

 Violet, purple ones quite small, all without teeth. The 

 un ^~ small flowers in diminutive loose clusters, 



with deeply five-cleft corolla, violet or 

 purple, or sometimes lilac- white, the yellow conic centre 

 colored by the five stamens. The fruit (at first green) 

 an oval, translucent ruby red berry, hanging or droop- 

 ing in small clusters. The flower is visited by honey- 

 bees and the beelike flies. 2-8 feet high. In moist 

 thickets and by waysides. Naturalized from Europe. 

 Me., south to Del., and west to Kan. and Minn. 



A native species, with an erect, smooth, 



.J*^ ^ branching stem, and ovate, wavy-toothed, 



Nightshade . ' m 



Soianum. thin-stemmed leaves slightly unequal- 



nigrum sided. Flowers white in small side clus- 



White ters, the corolla deeply five-lobed ; the 



July- calyx adhering to the globose berry, which 



September . J % ° a i V a 



is black when fully ripe, and clustered on 



thin drooping stems. l-2£ feet high. In waste places, 

 or near dwellings in cultivated ground, from Me., south, 

 and west to the Northwest Territory and Tex. 



A tall, and late in its season a reclining 

 Clammy or g p raw ii n g species resembling Soianum, 



Ground Cherry Jf °. ^ . a ' 



Physalis with spreading, sticky-hairy stem, and 



heterophylla broad heart-shaped leaves coarsely toothed 

 Green-yellow and pointed. Flower greenish yellow, 

 s" 1 1 h brown in the centre, with five triangular 



short lobes ; anthers and berry dull yellow, 

 the latter enclosed within the enlarged calyx. 1 -3 feet 

 high. Common in rich soil from Me., south, and west 

 to Col. and Tex. A variable species, not yet satisfacto- 

 rily defined, but including perhaps more than one species. 

 Found at Manchester, Vt. , by Miss Mary A. Day. 

 412 



