124 SOLANACE&. [SOLANUM. 



forms) 3-4-eelled, 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 



01 yellowish stellate tomentum . . . 2. 8. verbascifolium. 

 Armed: 



A very prickly diffuse bright-green herb with 

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



Shrubs or under shrubs : 

 Flowers bisexual, in racemose extra-axillary 

 cymes . . . . . . 4. 8. indicum. 



Peduncles 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 ; Royle 111. 279 ; F. B. I. iv, 229 ; Watt 

 E.D.; Collett Fl. Siml. 341 ; Prain Beng. PI. 745 ; CooTce Fl. Bomb, ii, 263 

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

 shade.) 



An erect nearly glabrous annual with much branched and somewhat 

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

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

 Bubumbellate on rather stout extra-axillary peduncles -J in. long ; 

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

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

 purple, | in. in diam., divided to below the middle into 5 oblong 

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

 globose, glabrous, style hairy towards the base. Berry % 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. DISTBIB. : 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. 8p. PL 184 ; Eoyle. 111. 279 ; F. B. I. iv, 

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

 Collett Fl. Siml. 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. Vern. 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 



