DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 145 



SOLANA'CE^E, NIGHTSHADE FAMILY 



Herbs or shrubs with leaves alternate and without stipules. 

 Flowers regular, with the parts in fives, except the single style 

 and 2-celled ovary. Fruit a many-seeded berry or capsule. 

 Seeds with curved embryo and endosperm. This family con- 

 tains Tobacco, Tomato, Nightshade, Egg-plant, Potato, and 

 Chili-pepper. 



I. SOLA'NUM, Nightshade, Potato 



Corolla wheel-shaped, 5-parted or cleft. Stamens with short 

 filaments and distinct anthers, which often apparently unite 

 around the style. Fruit usually a berry. 



a. S. Douglas'ii Dunal. Somewhat shrubby, widely branching or 

 even climbing by the rough angles of the branchlets. Leaves 

 ovate, entire, or with large teeth, 1-2 in. long. Corolla white or 

 bluish, small. Berries black. Common throughout California, near 

 the coast. 



b. S. ni'grum L. COMMON NIGHTSHADE. Annual, with stems 

 branching diffusely. Corolla small, white. Berries black when ripe, 

 as large as peas, in numerous umbels on axillary peduncles. This is 

 common everywhere in waste ground. 



c. S. umbellif'erum Esch. Shrubby at base, much branched, 

 with leaves and stems hoary. Flowers in umbels, the corolla bluish 

 purple, f in. in diameter. The leaves vary extremely. Widely 

 distributed. 



d. S. Xan'ti Gray. Similar to the above, but either smooth or 

 glandular-hairy ; leaves thin. Corolla generally larger. This is more 

 common in southern California. 



H. DATU'RA, Thorn-apple 



Stout, widely branching herbs with rank odor and narcotic- 

 poisonous qualities. Flowers large, on short stems from the 

 axils of the leaves. Calyx tubular, 5-toothed, deciduous, 

 leaving a circular disk under the fruit. Corolla broadlij 

 funnel-form, convolute in the bud. Pistils with long style 

 and 2-lipped stigma. Capsule prickly all over. Seeds large, 

 kidney-shaped. 



