538 SOLANACE^E. Lycopersicum. 



1. LYCOPEBSICUM, Tourn. TOMATO. 



Flowers as in Solanum, except that the anthers (on very short filaments) are united 

 by their contiguous edges into a cone, and their cells open longitudinally down the 

 whole length of the inner face, not by a hole at the apex. Herbs of the warmer 

 part of America, one species widely dispersed in cultivation ; the small racemose 

 flowers on peduncles which soon become lateral or opposite a leaf : pedicels articu- 

 lated and reflexed in fruit. 



1. L. esculentum, Mill. (TOMATO.) Annual, widely spreading, rank-scented, 

 hirsute and glandular, at least the branches : leaves interruptedly once or twice 

 pinnate ; the larger leaflets cut and toothed, the interposed small ones rounder 

 and often entire : corolla yellow : berry edible. Solanum Lycopersicum, Linn. 



The common Tomato probably has run wild in cultivated and waste grounds in the southern 

 part of the State. Var. CERASIFORME (Cherry Tomato) is seemingly native along the southern 

 borders of the United States as far west as Arizona, probably reaching California. The parts of 

 the flower, normally five, and two in the ovary, are often increased in the cultivated plant, and 

 very commonly two or more flowers are blended into one. 



2. SOLANUM, Tourn. NIGHTSHADE. POTATO. 



Calyx and rotate corolla 5-parted or cleft (or sometimes 4-10-parted or lobed); 

 the lobes of the latter valvate in the bud, with margins usually turned inwards 

 more or less, or the sinuses plaited. Filaments short : anthers distinct, although 

 often conniving ; the cells with a hole or chink at the apex, in many species also 

 opening lengthwise. Style elongated : stigma mostly entire. Ovary with 2 cells, 

 or rarely more, becoming a berry. Seeds many, flat. Herbs, or sometimes shrubby 

 plants, of various aspect and foliage. 



One of the largest genera known, chiefly indigenous to warm climates, a moderate number in 

 temperate regions, but exceedingly few in the Pacific United States. S. TUBEROSUM is the com- 

 mon Potato. S. MELONGENA, the Aubergine or Egg-plant. S. HETERODOXUM, Dunal, and 

 S. ROSTRATUM, Dunal, peculiar species extending from Mexico well into the United States east 

 of the Rocky Mountains (and remarkable for prickliness, for somewhat irregular corolla, one 

 anther much larger and longer than the rest, and the berry completely and closely invested by 

 the prickly calyx), might be expected to reach California by way of Arizona ; but they have not 

 been met with here. 



* Never prickly : anthers not tapering upward, disposed to dehisce from top to bottom. 

 -t- Corolla (mostly white) deeply 5-cleft or 5-parted, small. 



1. S. iiigrum, Linn. Annual, or sometimes becoming woody at base and more 

 enduring, widely branching, green and almost glabrous : leaves more or less ovate 

 and sinuate-toothed, sometimes merely repand or nearly entire, acute or acuminate : 

 flowers in small and pedunculate lateral umbellate clusters : berries small, black 

 when ripe, or rarely reddish. (The common Black Nightshade.) 



Var. Douglasii, Gray. Varying from almost glabrous to hoary-puberulent, and 

 from one to several feet high : leaves apt to be coarsely toothed, and the flowers 

 larger (sometimes half an inch or more in diameter) : fruiting calyx erect. S. Doug- 

 lasii, Dunal in DC. Prodr. xiii. 49. 



Waste and cultivated grounds and along streams towards the coast ; mainly or wholly the 

 var. Douglasii, which is seemingly indigenous, sometimes very large, and "shrubby at base." 

 S. umbelliferum, var. trachycladon, Torr. in Pacif. R. Rep. vii. 12, from Santa Inez, is of this 

 form. Southward it runs into the var. nodiflorum, which inclines to have entire leaves and 

 glabrous filaments, and the fruiting calyx reflexed. In multifarious forms this weed occurs in 

 almost every country. At least fifty of the species admitted by Dunal in Ue Candolle's Prodromus 

 are by other authors reduced to this. The berries have the reputation of being poisonous, but 

 in some parts of the world they are safely eaten. 



