II SOLANACEiE — OROBANCHACE.^i 301 



while eating the juicy pulp. Moreover, if swallowed 

 they would probably not be digested. The leaves have 

 short appressed hairs, and are sometimes woolly. 



S. nigrum. — This species on the Continent has the 

 stems covered with short appressed hairs ; with us they 

 are generally glabrous or nearly so. The flowers close 

 at night. They are small and white, sometimes with a 

 blue spot at the end of each corolla-lobe. 



Atropa 



Protogynous humble bee flowers. Nectar secreted 

 by the base of the ovary. 



A. Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade). — The corolla 

 is a pale purplish blue. Knuth, however, describes it 

 as brownish red above, dingy yellowish green below. 

 As regards size and form, the flower is adapted to 

 middle-sized humble bees. The nectar is protected by 

 stiff hairs on the stamens. The pistil projects some 

 distance beyond the anthers. When the flower opens 

 the stigma is mature, but the anthers are still closed. 

 The filaments are bent below the anthers. Finally, 

 the latter burst open and become covered with 

 pollen ; the filaments also elongate somewhat, but still 

 remain bent and overtopped by the stigma. The stem 

 is finely glandular at the summit. 



Below each leaf, and on the same side of the stem, 

 is a smaller one. This seems to fill up the interval. 

 The arrangement is peculiar, and is supposed to be due 

 to displacement, the leaf-stalk being connate with the 

 following shoot, and thus seeming to arise from it. 



OEOBANCHACE^ 



Parasitic plants, brown or purplish, never green. 

 The parts of the flower in twos or fours ; flowers some- 

 times with, sometimes without, nectar. 



