300 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS chap. 



Hyoscyamus 



Homogamous humble bee flowers. Nectar secreted 

 by the base of the ovary. The capsule is enclosed in 

 the enlarged persistent calyx. The seeds are jerked out 

 by the wind. 



H. niger (Henbane). — The plant is hairy and viscid, 

 with a nauseous smell. The corolla is dingy yellow with 

 purplish veins. The stamens are hairy. The stigma 

 rises above the anthers at first, but gradually the corolla- 

 tube grows, bringing them up to the level of the stigma, 

 and thus, in the absence of insect visits, facilitating 

 self-fertilisation. According to Ludwig, the terminal 

 flowers are cleistogamous. The seeds are numerous, 

 compressed, dirty gray or pale brown, moderately deeply 

 pitted all over, and divided into roundish or oblong 

 areas by more or less conspicuously toothed ridges. 



SOLANUM 



There is no honey. The anthers, which are almost 

 sessile, form a cone round the pistil, and each opens by 

 a pore at the end. Fruit, a berry. We have two species : 

 >S'. Dulcamara, a climber ; S. nigrum, erect. 



S. Dulcamara (Bitter-sweet). — The flowers are blue, 

 with violet veins and yellow anthers. The base is 

 bluish black, and so shiny that it looks as if covered by 

 a film of liquid. At the base of the corolla-lobes are 

 greenish knobs which surround the flower in a ring, and 

 also look as if covered with fluid, so that H. Mliller 

 calls them sham nectaries. Flies have, in fact, been seen 

 exploring the flower, evidently expecting to find nectar. 

 Delpino, however, refers the plant to the same type as 

 Borage, and regards it as a bee flower. Hofl'er has 

 suggested that the juicy greenish knobs are pierced and 

 sucked by the insects. The fruit is a berry, pulpy and red 

 when ripe. The seeds are somewhat reniform, tapering 

 to one end, white, cartilaginous, and smooth to the naked 

 eye, but in reality very finely, though deeply, pitted 

 and rugose. It is probable that birds scatter the seeds 



