242 solanace^:. [Solatium. 



in a cone round the style, opening at the top in 1 or 2 pores, without any 

 prominent connectivum between the cells. Fruit a 2-celled berry. — Herbs, 

 shrubs, or low soft-wooded trees. Leaves entire or irregularly toothed, lobed, 

 or divided, often in pairs, a smaller one being developed in the axil of the 

 larger one. Flowers solitary, or more frequently in short racemes or cymes, 

 on lateral or terminal peduncles, sometimes paniculate. 



A very large genus, with the geueral geographical range of the Order. 



No prickles. Plant glabrous or softly pubescent. 



Calyx 5-toothed 1. S. nigrum. 



Calyx 10-toothed 2. S. decemdentatum. 



Branches and often the veins of the leaves armed with prickles. Plant 

 more or less tomentose, with stellate hairs. 

 Anthers not above 2 lines long, and not acuminate. 



Flowers all fertile, in short loose racemes. Berry 4 or 5 lines 



diameter 3. S. indicum. 



Fertile flowers quite solitary, or single at the base of -a 1 -sided 



raceme of sterile ones. Berry an inch diameter . . . . 4. S. sancttim. 

 Anthers 5 to 7 lines long, narrowed upwards. 



Calyx 3 lines long. Corolla-lobes lanceolate. Berry very hairy 5. S.ferox. 

 Calyx 7 to 8 lines long. Corolla-lobes very broad and short . 6. S. Wrightii, 



1. S. nigrum, Linn. An erect annual or biennial, with very spreading 

 branches, from 1 to near 2 ft. high, glabrous or nearly so in the Hongkong 

 specimens, in some others hairy or rough on the angles. Leaves stalked, 

 ovate, 1 to 2 in. long, with coarse irregular angular teeth or nearly entire. 

 Flowers small and white, in little cymes almost contracted into umbels, on 

 short lateral peduncles. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla deeply 5-lobed, 3 to near 

 4 lines diameter. Anthers not acuminate. Berries small, globular, usually 

 black, but sometimes green, yellow, or dingy-red. — Solanum ." Morellce vera/' 

 Dun. in DC. Prod. xiii. pars i. 45 to 59, as to the greater number of the 

 supposed species included in the group. 



In waste places, Champion and others. A common weed in all the warmer and most of 

 the temperate parts of the globe. 



2. S. decemdentatum, Roxb. ; Bun. in BO Prod. ^\\\. part i. 179. 

 An annual or biennial, like the last, but usually larger and coarser, and always 

 pubescent or hairy. Leaves stalked, ovate, acuminate, entire or slightly sinu- 

 ate, 2 to 4 in. long. Pedicels 1 -flowered, axillary, sometimes solitary, but 

 usually 2 to 5 or 6 together, 2 to 4 lines long, more or less recurved and 

 hairy. Calyx short, truncate, with 10 linear lobes or teeth, sometimes very 

 short, sometimes 1^ lines long. Corolla (white ?) about 4 lines diameter, 5- 

 lobed to about the middle. Anthers not acuminate. Berries red, glabrous, 

 3 to 4 lines diameter.— S. mollissimum, Blume ; S. biflorum, Lour. ; 8. Cal- 

 leryanum, Dun. ; and S. Osbeckii, Dun. in DC. Prod. xiii. pars i. 178, 179. 



Hongkong, Champion. In Khasia, Mergui, the Archipelago, and northward to S. China, 

 Loochoo, and Bonin. 



3. S. indicum, Linn, (partly) ; Bun. in BO. Trod. xiii. part i. 309 ; 

 Wight, Ic. t. 346. Stem shrubby at the base ; the branches, leaves, and in- 

 florescence thickly covered with a hoary, close, but soft stellate tomentum. 

 Prickles stout, and mostly recurved on the branches, usually straight on the 

 petioles and nerves of the leaves. Leaves stalked, ovate, irregularly and ob- 



