COKOLLIFLOKJE. 



313 



sepium, the White Convolvulus, is one of our most beautiful and at the 

 same time commonest hedge-plants. The Cuseuteee or u Dodders " are 

 remarkable for their leafless and parasitic habit ; they germinate in the 

 ground, and then coil themselves round the stems of plants and send roots 

 in through their rind, by which they are then entirely nourished. They 

 have wire-like stems with minute scales at the nodes, and tufts of small 

 Convolvulaceous flowers. They are great pests in clover- and flax-fields, 

 destroying the plants they infest. 



SOLANACEJE. NIGHTSHADES. 

 Coh. Polemoniales, Benth. et Hook. 



Diagnosis. Herbs, rarely shrubs or trees, with colourless juice 

 and alternate leaves; flowers regular, or slightly irregular, often 

 extra-axillary, 5-merous and 5-androus, on bract-less pedicels ; 

 corolla hypogynous, plaited-i rubricate, plaited-convolute, or invo- 

 lutive-valvate in aestivation ; stamens epipetalous ; ovary 2-celled, 

 cells antero-posterior ; fruit a 2-celJed (rarely 3-5-celled) many- 

 seeded capsule or a succulent berry. Seeds perisperinic ; embryo 

 curved. 



Fig. 413. 



Deadly Nightshade (Atropa Belladonna). 



