138 PENTANDRIA MONOGYXIA 





f.rSy on pedicels about an inch long), nodding, aculeate. Calyx 5 to 7 or 10-*« r / rc > 

 aculeate; segments la nrc -ovate. Corolla purplish, pubescent \ lobes b to 7 or Ifl 

 ovate, spreading. Berries ovoid-oblong, very large, mostly dark purjde when mm* 

 ture, sometimes pale green. 



Hah. Gardens : not common. Fl. July-^Aug. Fr. Octo. 



Obs. This is occasionally cultivated, as a culinary vegetable ; but is not com- 

 mon,— a our summer is scarcely long enough for it. The N. Melongena, --tchich 

 is mostly unarmed^ and bears white fruit— {and vf ir/tich the foregoing is sujiposed 

 hy sotne to be only a variety)—*"* still letsfrequottly met with. 



6. S. caiiolinkxsk, L. Stem sufirutieo.se, annual ; leaves ovate-oblong, 

 acute, sinuate-angular and often subhastate, stellate-pubescent ; ra- 

 cemes simple, lax. Jieck, Bot. /). 257. Icon, Bart, Jim. 1, tab. 23 

 Caiioumax Solanum. Vttlgo — Horse Nettle, 



Root perennial. Stem from 1 to nearly '2 feet high, annual, but firm and suiTVuti- 

 cose, hollow, branched, armed with .sharp spreading prickles. Leaves -\ to G 

 inches long, and 2to3or 4 inches wide, aculeate along the midrib and larger 

 nerves on both sides, clnthcd with a hirsute stellate pubescence ; petioles half an 

 inch to an inch and a half long. Racemes lateral, or Opposite to and often longer 

 than the leaves; pedicels about half an inch long. Calyx aculeate, 5-parted ; see- 

 Bients lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla bluish white, rather large, externally pu- 

 bescent ; lobes 5, lance-ovate. Berries globt.se, orange yellow when mature. 

 Jlab. Marshallton ;* West-Chester: not common. /7. July. Fr, October. 



Obs. This is a vile, pernicious weed; and extremely difficult to subdue, or 

 ♦radicate. It is believed to have been introduced by the hie Humphrey Marshall 

 ~1nto his Botanic Garden at Marshallton,— whence it has spread around the neigh- 

 borhood/and strondy illustrates the necessity of caution, in the introduction^! 

 mere Botanical curiosities into good agricultural districts. Four or five additional 

 species are enumerated in the U. States. 



107, PHYSALIS. L. J\« u tt. Gen. 198. 

 [Greek, Physa, a bladder, or bag; in allusion to the inflated calyx.] 



Calyx 5-cIeft, persistent, enlarging and becoming ventricose. Corolla 

 campanu late-rotate ; limb plicate, somewhat 5-lobed ; tube very short! 

 Berry 2-celled, globose, enclosed in the pentairunai-ovoid inflated calyx. 

 Seeds numerous, compressed, subreniform-orbieular. 



Herbaceous, or frulesccnt ; leaves often in pairs ; peduncles axillary, or lateral, 

 solitary, or several together. Not. Ord. 213. Lindl. Solanea:. 



1. P. viscosA, L ? Stem herbaceous, somewhat dichotomously bran- 

 ched, branches spreading, viscid -pubescent ; leaves solitary, or in pairs, 

 fiubcordate-ovate, mostly acute, more or less repand-dentate ; flowers 

 solitary, axillary, pendulous. Beck, Bot. p. 257. 



Clammy Physalis. Vulgo — Ground Cherry. 



Whole plant very pubescent, and more or less viscid. Root annual ? Stem \2 

 to 18 inches high, branched somewhat dichotomously; branches spreading, oftrii 

 divaricate, and geniculate. Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, and 2 to 3 inches wide, va- 

 rying from la ncc-ovate, acute, or acuminate, to roundish ovate and obtuse; the 

 basj sometimes cordate, sometimes entire and narrowed abruptly to a petiole, of- 

 ten unequal; the margin sometimes nearly entire, but generally repand-dentat* 

 (and all those varieties occur on the same plant); petioles 1 to 2 inches long. C*- 

 lyx campanulate, pubescent (sometimes very hairy)— gradually enlarging uatilfr 



