WINTER CHERRY . 411 



feet high. Leaves deeply divided pinnately, the lobes oval-lanee-shaped. 

 Flowers bluish violet, 1 inch across ; August and September. Greenhouse 

 perennial. 



S. ROBUSTUM (strong). Stem tree-like, with robust, prickly, and 

 woolly branches, 2 to 4 feet high. Leaves prickly on both sides, oval- 

 elliptic with wavy lobes, velvety above, woolly beneath. Flowers white, 

 1 inch across, clustered. Fruit globular, hairy, of a rusty-orange hue. 

 Greenhouse, suitable for Sub-tropical gardening. 



S. SEAFORTHIANUM (Seaf orth's). Stem trailing. Leaves oval, entire. 

 Flowers lilac or pale red ; July to September. Fruit globose, yellowish 

 red. Stove. 



S. Wendlandii (Wendland's). The largest-flowered and handsomest 

 of the climbing species. Stem succulent. Leaves large, deeply lobed, 

 deciduous. Flowers, 2 inches across, in very large drooping cymes, lilac- 

 purple. A magnificent summer-flowering stove-climber. Introduced 

 in 1887 from Costa Rica. 



Solanums do best in a rich loamy soil. Given the 

 greenhouse or stove accommodation required by most of 

 the species, their cultivation is not attended by difficulty. Most of 

 them may be raised from seed, whilst the shrubby kinds are usually- 

 propagated by means of cuttings from the young shoots, struck in a 

 propagating frame. The large-leaved annual species are used for Sub- 

 tropical bedding. They are raised from seeds sown in heat in early 

 spring 

 Description of Solanum Gapsicastriim, or Star Capsicum, natural size. 



Plate 198. A, flowering branch ; B, fruiting branch. Fig. 1 is a flower, 

 enlarged ; 2, a section through same ; 3, a section through the fruit. 



WINTER CHERRY 



Natural Order Solanace^. Genus Physalis 



Physalis (Greek, a bladder). A genus of about thirty species of annual 

 and perennial hairy herbs, similar to Solanum, but difiering in the 

 characters of the anthers and calyx. In Solanum the anthers open by 

 terminal pores ; in Physalis by longitudinal slits. After flowering the 

 calyx enlarges, completely surrounds the Cherry-like fruit, and resembles 

 a bladder. The species, of which only one or two are of horticultural 

 interest, are chiefly American, though a few are widely distributed in 

 warm regions outside America. 



