SOLANACEAE. 



335 



4, Physalis peruviana L. Cape 

 Gooseberry. (Fig. 362.) Perennial 

 by rootstocks, velvety-pubescent, 

 branched, 2°-4° high. Leaves thin, 

 flaccid, broadly ovate, 2'-4' long, 

 acuminate at the apex, cordate or 

 subcordate at the base, the petioles 

 half as long as the blades or less; 

 peduncles V long or less, recurved in 

 fruit ; corolla about 8" broad, yellow, 

 with a dark purplish eye; anthers 

 violet; fruiting calyx I'-l^' long, 

 ovoid, scarcely angled. [P. edulis 

 of Lefroy.] 



Waste grounds, escaped from culti- 

 vation, and locally naturalized. Native 

 of Soutti America. Flowers in spring 

 and summer. 



Physalis lanceolata Michx., of the central and southern United States, a 

 perennial species with spatulate or oblanceolate leaves, and yellowish corolla 

 with a dark eye, given as Bermudian on the authority of Lane, is probably 

 erroneously recorded. 



3. SOLANUM [Tourn.] L. 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, often stellate-pubescent, some species climbing. 

 Flowers cymose, umbelliform, paniculate, or racemose. Calyx campanulate or 

 rotate, mostly 5-toothed or 5-cleft. Corolla rotate, the limb plaited, 5-angled or 

 5-lobed, the tube very short. Stamens inserted on the throat of the corolla; 

 filaments short; anthers linear or oblong, acute or acuminate, connate or con- 

 nivent into a cone, each sac dehiscent by a terminal pore, or sometimes by a 

 short introrse terminal slit, or sometimes also longitudinally. Ovary usually 2- 

 eelled; stigma small. Berry mostly globose, the calyx either persistent at its 

 base or enclosing it. [Name, according to Wittstean, from solamen, quieting.] 

 About 1000 species, of wide geographic distribution. Type species: Solamim 

 nigrum L. 



Plant unarmed; berries small, black, 1. S. nigrum. 



Plant copiously armed with yellow prickles ; berries large, 



scarlet. 2, 8. aculeatissimum. 



