60 SCROPHULARIACE.E. 



calyx about 4 lines long, densely white-hairy; nutlet solitary ovoid, the dull brown sur- 

 face smooth but not polished. Shasta Co. 



SOLANACE^E. 



Herbs or shrubs, with alternate leaves and no stipules, regular 5-merous flowers on 

 bractless pedicels, a single style and a 2-celled ovary; the fruit a many-seeded berry or 

 capsule. Key to genera and species, p. 157. 



This small order of, perhaps, not more than twenty species west of the Sierra Nevada, 

 and less than 70 in North America, is remarkable for the diversity of properties exhib- 

 ited by its members, and the almost universal use by man of several of its species. At 

 first view, the classification seems absurd which puts fiery cayenne pepper and insipid 

 egg plants, the wholesome tomato and deadly nightshade, nutritious potatoes and poi- 

 sonous tobacco together in one family. A careful examination shows that these seem- 

 ingly very different plants are much alike after all. The four most important plants of 

 this order potato, tobacco, red or Cayenne pepper, and tomato are natives of tropical 

 America, and were consequently not used in the Old World before the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. The following ornamental plants of the order are common in cultivation: Jeru- 

 saleum Cherry (Solanum Pseudo-Capsicum, a small shrub with red berries; Jasmine 

 Solanum (S. jasminoides), a shrubby climber, with a profusion of nearly white blossoms a 

 little smaller than those of the potato; the well-known Matrimony Vine (Lycium vulgare) ; 

 Tree Datura or Stramonium (Datura arborea), with hanging flowers six or seven inches 

 in length; Oestrum, a shrub with drooping tubular red flowers in terminal bunches; and 

 Petunia, with funnel- form corollas of various colors. 



SOLANUM. 



S. elaeagnifolium, Sav. A low perennial, silvery, whitened by a dense coat of 

 stellate hairs, often with small prickles: calyx 5-angled, lobes slender: corolla violet, an 

 inch or less broad. Tulare Co. 



S. villosum, Lam. Annual, hairy: leaves an inch long or more, sinuate-dentate: 

 corolla white^minute. Introduced. 



S. alatum, Moennh. Similar but with angular stem and red berries. Introduced. 



S. cupuliferum, Greene. Distinguished from S. umbelliferum by leaves trans- 

 versely rugose, margin crisped, hairs with pustulate base and flat corolla. 



SCROPHULARIACE^E . 



A corolla more or less bilabiate, with the lobes imbricated in the bud; didynamous or 

 diandrous stamens; a single style and a 2-celled ovary and capsule mark this large order. 

 In Pentstemon there is a fifth rudimentary stamen. Verbascum has five perfect stamens. 

 Key to genera and species, p. 158. 



