Flora of the Malayan PeniuHula. 335 



Penang : Wallich ! Peeak : Scortechini ! Malacca : Griffith. 

 Pahang : Biclley ! — Distbib. Malay Archipelago. 



11. SoLANUM ACULBATissiMUM, Jacq. Col. I. 100. An armed slender 

 undershrub, 2 to 3 feet high, with glabrous stems covered with very- 

 many long, straight, slender prickles. Leaves only on the upper part of 

 the stems, membranous, ovate, lobed, sparsely hairy ; 3 to 5 in. long. 

 Flowers on 1-7-flowered peduncles, that are usually only 1-fruited ; 

 peduncles in fruit -75 in. long. Calyx even in fruit small, under -25 in. 

 long, very prickly. Fruit globose, 1*25 in. across, smooth. Seeds 

 •2 in. in diam., extremely compressed, almost winged. Jacq. Icon. 

 I. t. 41 ; Clarke in Hook. f. Flor. Brit. Ind. IV. 237. S. aculeatissimwn 

 var. ? denudatum, Dun. in DC. Prod. XIII. 244. 



SiNGAPOEE : G. Thomson. 



This is not in Herb. Calcutta. The above meagre description is taken from the 

 accounts of Dunal in the Prodromus, and of Clarke in the Flora of British India. The 

 specimen to which Clarke refers is one of the "varieties" of Dunal, not the true 

 S. aculeatissimwn of Jacquin, and Dunal himself was not satisfied that it is to 

 Jacquin's species of this name that the variety should be referred. As it has not again 

 been reported, it is possible we may have here to deal with an unusual state of some 

 casually introduced and perhaps well-known American species. 



2. Capsicum, Linn. 



Unarmed annual or perennial, glabrous or glabrescent herbs or 

 shrubs. Leaves alternate, entire or repand. Floiuers axillary, solitary 

 or several together. Calyx campanulate, minutely 5-toothed, not 

 enlarging in fruit. Corolla-tuhe short, rotate, limb 5-lobed, valvate in 

 bud. Stamens 5, adnate near base of corolla; anthers oblong, not 

 longer than filaments, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 2-celled, rarely 

 3-celled ; style columnar, stigma small. Fncit resembling a berry, but 

 with the calyx at its base ; elongated or (rarely) globose. Seeds very 

 numerous, disk-like ; embryo peripheric. — Disteib. Species 2 or more, 

 natives of America. 



The number of species is doubtful, and depends on the point of view of the reviewer 

 with regard to the many more or less distinct forms assumed by the plants under 

 cultivation ; some writers recognise as many as 80, others claim only about 20 ; more 

 recent authors insist only on 2 species — a perennial (C. frutescens), and an annual 

 (C. annuuDi), both very variable. Possibly, however, there is but a single very variable 

 species, for in the tropics the forms of C. annuum are often not truly annual, and in 

 temperate regions the perennial tropical forms rarely persist for more than a season. 



Pedicels solitary, variously erect or reflexed ; fruits erect or spread- 

 ing or pendent, at least as long as, usually longer than, the 

 pedicels ; plants annual or biennial : — 



Flowers white ; berries at first green, afterwards becoming red, 



orange or yellow : — 

 Fruit not globular : — 



