88 SOLANACEJE. (potato FAMILY.) 



Var. longiloba, EngeL Flowers IJ to 2J lines long; calyx-lobes often with recurved 

 tips; capsule mostly only 1-seeded, enveloped by the withered corolla. 



* * Capsule pointed, capped or enveloped hy the withered corolla. 



2. C. salina, Engel. Flowers IJ to 2^ lines long delicate white; corolla lobes often 

 overlapping, denticulate; capsule surrounded but not capped by the corolla, usually 

 1-seeded. — Growing in saline marshes, usually on Salicomia. 



3. C. subinclusa, Dur. & HUg. Flowers sessUe or nearly so (at length in large 

 clusters), 2^ to 4 lines long; lobes of the coroUa short, the tube somewhat urn-shaped, 

 only partly covered by the fleshy, usually reddish calyx. — The most common specie* 

 growing on coarse herbs and shrubs. 



Okder 42. SOLANACBiE. 



Herbs or shmbs, with alternate leaves and no stipules, regular 5-merous flowers on 

 braotless pedicels, a single style and a 2-celled ovary; the fruit a many-seeded berry or 

 capsule. 



This small order of, perhaps, not more than a dozen species west of the Sierra Nevada, 

 and l6ss than 70 in North America, is remarkable for the diversity of properties exhibited 

 by its members, and the almost universal use by man of several of its species. At first 

 view, the classification seems absurd which puts fiery Cayenne pepper and insipid egg 

 plants, the wholesome tomato and deadly night-shade, nutritious potatoes and poisonous 

 tobacco together in one family. A careful examination shows that these seemingly very 

 different plants are much alike after all. The four most important plants of this order — 

 potato, tobacco, red or Cayenne pepper, and tomato — are natives of tropical America, 

 and were consequently not used in the Old World before the sixteenth century. The 

 following ornamental plants of the order are common in cultivation: Jerusalem Cherry 

 (Solanum Pseudo-Capsicum), a small shrub, with red berries; Jasmine Solanum (5'. Jas- 

 minoides), a shrubby climber, with a profusion of nearly white blossoms a little smaller 

 than those of the potato; the well-known Matrimony Vine {Lycium milgare); Tree 

 Datura or Stramonium {Datura arborea), with hanging flowers six or seven inches in 

 length; Oestrum, a shrub with drooping tubular red flowers in terminal bunches; and 

 Petumia, with funnel-form corollas of various colors. 



Solanvm Xa/nti, Gray, grows along the coaBt from Santa Barbara Bouthward, and lias been reported 

 from Lake County. It is more berbaceous than iS. vml}ellifenLm, and may be distingulsbed witb the aid 

 of a lens by Its simple glandular bairs, instead of the branching balrs of the latter species. 



Pkysalis or Ground Cherry may be found in cultivated ground. Its berries are enclosed by an 

 Inflated calyx. 



Datwra Meteloides, DC, grows on the Salinas Elver and southward. The flowers are white or violet 

 ftJaged, and 6 to 8 IncheR long, with a wide border; the capsule nodding. 



