VIOLET NIGHTSHADE (Solatium Xanti, Gray). Flowers 

 saucer-shaped, about an inch across, deep violet, with white- 

 encircled green spots in the centre, and a cone of yellow an- 

 thers clasping the style; borne in lateral or terminal umbel- 

 like clusters. Fruit a green or purplish berry about the size of 

 a cherry. Leaves ovate, thinnish, an inch or two long, occa- 

 sionally lobed at the base. A handsome perennial, shrubby at 

 the base, 2 to o feet high, more or less clothed with sticky 

 hairs. Blooming from April till June throughout California 

 and into Nevada. 



An examination of the hairs upon Solanum Xanti shows 

 them to be jointed, a characteristic of importance to dis- 

 tinguish it from a nearly similar species S. umbelliferum, Esch., 

 which is more woody and hoary with a pubescence of hairs 

 that are not jointed but branched. S. Xanti by its queer 

 specific name commemorates, in rather cryptic fashion, Mr. 

 L. J. Xantus de Vesey of the Smithsonian Institution, who 

 visited California about 60 years ago, and was one of the first 

 collectors of this species. On Santa Catalina island a robust 

 variety WaHacei is found with flowers 1| inches in diameter. 



