NIGHTSHADH FAMILY. Solanaceae. 



The fruit, though often narcotic and extremely poison 

 ous, is sometimes harmless and edible ; usually a many- 

 seeded round berry with the calyx generally adhering to 

 its base. The potato and the tomato are the widest- 

 known members of the family. 



A tall, almost shrublike plant with vari- 



Bifte*r'swe?t°' ""^^^ "^""^^ ^''^^'^ ^^^^^^ ^''''"' ^''"^^^ *^ ^"■ 

 Solanum angular in outline, some lobed and others 



Dulcamara formed of three leaflets, the two lateral 

 Violet, purple ones quite small, all without teeth. The 

 ""^" small flowers in diminutive loose clusters, 



with deeply five-cleft corolla, violet or 

 purple, or sometimes lilac- white, the j^ellow conic centre 

 colored by the five stamens. The fruit (at first green) 

 an oval, translucent ruby red berry, hanging or droop- 

 ing in small clusters. The flower is visited by honey- 

 bees and the beelike flies. 2-8 feet high. In moist 

 thickets and by w^aysides. Naturalized from Europe. 

 Me., south to Del., and west to Kan. and Minn. 



A native species, -^vith an erect, smooth, 



P branching stem, and ovate, wavy-toothed, 



Nightshade , . , , , , , , 



Solanum tlun-stemmed leaves slightly unequal- 



nigrum sided. Flowers white in small side clus- 



White ters, the corolla deeply five-lobed ; the 



^^~ calj'x adhering to the globose berr}^ which 



is black when fully ripe, and clustered on 



thin drooping stems. 1-24 feet high. In waste places, 



or near dwellings in cultivated ground, from Me., south, 



and west to the Northwest Territory and Tex. 



A tall, and late in its season a reclining 



Clammy ^^ sprawling species resembling Solanum, 



Ground Cherry . / ,. ^ . i i . \ 



Physalis with spreading, sticky-hairy stem, and 



heterophylla broad heart-shaped leaves coarsely toothed 

 Green=yellow and pointed. Flower greenish yellow, 

 *'"'^~ brown in the centre, with five triangular 



short lobes ; anthers and berry dull yellow, 

 the latter enclosed within the enlarged calyx. 1-3 feet 

 high. Common in rich soil from Me., south, and west 

 to Col. and Tex. A variable species, not yet satisfacto- 

 rily defined, but including perhaps more than one species. 

 Found at Manchester, Vt., by Miss Mary A. Day. 



412 



