Potato Tree 



829 



when young. The leaves are alternate, thick, elliptic, oblong-obovate or ovate, 

 I to 3 dm. long, blunt or taper-pointed, abruptly tapering at the base into the 

 stout leaf-stalk, entire or but slightly wavy-margined, yellowish or grayish green 

 above, pale and prominently veined beneath, thickly velvety throughout. The 

 flowers, appearing throughout the year, are in terminal cymes with long, stout 

 peduncles, on stout, hairy pedicels; the calyx is very hairy, 5 to 6 mm. long, the 

 tube broadly turbinate, its lobes triangular; the corolla is white, 1.5 cm. broad, its 

 lobes ovate or oval-ovate, blunt and hairy; the 5 stamens are joined to the tube of 

 the corolla, their anthers shghtly exserted and oblong; ovary 2-celled. The fruit 

 is a subglobose, yellow berry i to 2 cm. in diameter; its numerous seeds are dark 

 yellow and somewhat kidney-shaped. 



Fig. 756. — Potato Tree. 



The wood is hard, close-grained, light yellow and satiny, moderately heavy. 



The genus Solatium is a very large one, over 900 species of trees, shrubs, herbs 

 or climbers having been described ; they are most abundant in the American tropics. 

 It suppUes some very valuable food products, as the Potato, which is the root 

 tuber of Solanum tuberosum Linnaeus, also the Egg plant, Solatium Melongena 

 Linnaeus. The name is the old Latin one of the Black nightshade, S. nigrum 

 Linnaeus, the t3rpe of the genus, in reference to its quieting properties. 



