POTATO FAMILY. Solanaceae. 



There are a great many kinds of Solanum, abundant in 

 tropical America; herbs or shrubs, sometimes climbing; 

 often downy; calyx wheel-shaped, with five teeth or lobes, 

 corolla wheel-shaped, the border plaited, with five angles 

 or lobes and a very short tube ; anthers sometimesgrouped to 

 form a cone, filaments short; fruit a berry, either enclosed 

 in the calyx or with the calyx remaining on its base. This 

 is the Latin name of the Nightshade, meaning "quieting." 



This is much handsomer than most of 

 Purple Nightshade 



Soibnum Xdnti the eastern Nightshades, hairy and sticky, 

 Purple with several spreading stems, from one to 



Spring, summer three feet high, springing from a perennial 

 California root ^ with ^in, rou ghi s h leaves, more or 



less toothed. In favorable situations the flowers are 

 beautiful, each about an inch across, and form handsome 

 loose clusters. The corolla is saucer-shaped, bright purple, 

 with a ring of green spots in the center, bordered with 

 white and surrounding the bright yellow cone formed by 

 the anthers. The berry is pale green or purple, the size 

 of a small cherry. This is sometimes sweet-scented and is 

 very fine on Mt. Lowe and elsewhere in southern Califor- 

 nia, but is paler and smaller in Yosemite. Blue Witch, 

 S. umbelliferum, is very similar, more woody below, with 

 deep green stems, shorter branches, smaller, thicker leaves, 

 and a dull white or purplish berry. It grows in the foot- 

 hills of the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada Mountains 

 and flowers chiefly in summer, but more or less all through 

 the year. 



N A branching plant, about two feet high 



SofanlmDouglasii and across, with roughish stems and thin, 

 White smooth or slightly hairy, dark green leaves, 



Spring, summer toothless, or the margins more or less 

 Southwest coarsely toothed. The flowers are white, 



tinged with lilac, with a purplish ring surrounding the 

 yellow cone formed by the anthers. In southern California 

 the flowers are nearly half an inch across, but smaller 

 elsewhere. The berries are black. This is common through- 

 out California near the coast. S. mgrum, the common 

 Nightshade, is a weed in almost all countries, common in 

 waste places and in cultivated soil, and has small white 

 flowers and black berries, about as large as peas and said to 

 be poisonous. 



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