568 



PART IV. CLASSIFICATION. 



the ovary appears to be quadrilocular, as in Datura : ovules 

 campylotropous ; fruit a capsule with various dehiscence, or a 

 berry : seed with endosperm. Herbs, occasionally woody plants, 

 sometimes climbers by irritable petioles (e.g. species of Solanum) ; 

 without milky latex. Inflorescence cymose, but complicated by 

 the displacement of the bracts : Fig. 382 B, for instance, is a dia- 

 gram of the inflorescence of Atropa ; the main axis which termin- 

 ates with the flower 1, bears a bracteole la and a lateral shoot 

 terminating in the flower 2 ; this springs from the axil of a bract 

 I/?, which, however, is not inserted at the base of its axillary 



shoot (the point of 

 the arrow indicates 

 its proper position), 

 but is displaced up- 

 wards until it is 

 close under the 

 bracteole 2a ; this 

 displacement is re- 

 peated throughout 

 the whole system of 

 the cyme, so that in 

 Atropa there are 

 always two leaves 

 below each flower, a 

 larger one (Fig. 382 

 A la, 2a, and so on) 

 which is the brac- 

 teole of the flower, 

 and a smaller one 

 (Fig. 382 A, Oft, 1ft, 

 2ft, etc.), which is 

 the bract from the 

 axil of which the 

 flowering-shoot springs. In other of the Solaneae similar arrange- 

 ments are found. Most plants of this order are poisonous. 



Tribi 1. Solanece. Fruit a berry : embryo curved. In the genus Sol- 

 anum the anthers are syngenesious : S. Dulcamara, the Bittersweet or 

 Woody Night-shade, has a blue flower, and S. nigrum has a white flower ; 

 both are common : S. tuberosum is the Potato-plant. Physalis Alkekengi, 

 the Winter Cherry, has an inflated red calyx which encloses the berry. 

 Lycopersicum esculentum is the Tomato. The fruits of Capsicum longum and 



B 



Fie. 382, A Upper portion of a flowering stem of Atropa 

 Belladonna. B Diasrram of the same stem : 1 2 3 the 

 flowers; a and /3 the bracteoles and bracts. From the 

 axils of ft spring the new floral axes, along which the bract 

 p is displaced. 



