318 THE SOLANUM FAMILY. 



strongly veined, with 5 stiff, broad, almost prickly lobes. Corolla above 

 an inch long, pale, dingy-yellow, with purplish veins. Capsule globular, 

 with numerous small seeds. 



In waste, stony places, on roadsides, &c., in central and southern 

 Europe and western Asia, and having been formerly much cultivated 

 for its medicinal properties, has spread far into northern Europe. In 

 Britain, chiefly on rubbish and waste places, about villages and old 

 castles, in England, southern Scotland, and Ireland. Fl summer. 



III. SOLANUM. SOLANUM. 



Herbs, shrubs, or, in exotic species, low trees ; the flowers usually in 

 cymes, on short, lateral, or terminal peduncles. Calyx of 5 or rarely 

 more divisions. Corolla rotate, 5-lobed, with scarcely any tube. Anthers 

 almost sessile, dosed or joined together in an erect cone round the style 

 in the centre of the flower, each anther opening by a small pore at the 

 top. Fruit a berry, with several seeds, 



A very large genus, widely spread over the globe, but chiefly in 

 tropical regions, and more especially in South America. The cultivated 

 species include the Potato (S. tufarosum), the Tomato or Love-apple (S. 

 Ly coper sicum), the Egg-plant or Brinjall (S. Melongena), and several 

 ornamental ones. 



Climber, shrubby at the base. Leaves slightly cordate or 3-lobed 1. 5. Dulcamara* 

 Erect annual or biennial. Leaves ovate, angularly toothed . . 2. S. nigrum. 



1. S. Dulcamara, Linn, (fig. 715). Bittersweet, Nightshade. Stem 

 shrubby at the base, with climbing or straggling branches, often many 

 feet in length, but dying far back in winter. Leaves stalked, ovate or 

 ovate -lanceolate, 2 or 3 inches long, usually broadly cordate at the base 

 and entire, but sometimes with an additional smaller lobe or segment 

 on each side, either quite glabrous or downy on both sides as well as 

 the stem. Flowers rather small, blue, with yellow anthers, in loose 

 cymes, on lateral peduncles shorter than the leaves. Berries small, 

 globular or ovoid, and red. 



In hedges and thickets, in moist shady situations, all over Europe, 

 except the extreme north, represented all across temperate Asia by a 

 closely allied species, or perhaps a mere variety. Generally diffused 

 over England and Ireland, but more rare in Scotland. Fl. summer. [A 

 maritime variety (marinum, Bab.), with a prostrate branched stem and 

 fleshy habit, occurs on the south coast of England.] 



2. S. nigrum, Linn. (fig. 716). Black S. An erect annual or bien- 

 nial, with very spreading branches, about a foot high; in Britain 

 usually glabrous or nearly so, but on the Continent often hairy or 

 rough on the angles. Leaves stalked, ovate, with coarse angular teeth. 

 Flowers small and white, in little cymes almost contracted into umbels, 

 on short, lateral peduncles. Berries small, globular, usually black, but 

 sometimes, especially on the Continent, green, yellow, or dingy-red. 



One of the widest spread weeds over every part of the globe, except 

 the extreme north and south ; varying so much in warmer regions 

 as to have been described under more than forty names. Common in 

 some parts of England, but local in Scotland and Ireland, and only 



