NIGHTSHADE FAMILY. Solanaces. 



Ju 

 September 



The fruit, though often narcotic and extremely poison- 

 ous, is sometimes harmless and edible ; usually a many- 

 seeded round berry with the calyx generally adhering to 

 its base. The potato and the tomato are the widest- 

 known members of the family. 



A tall, almost shrublike plant with vari- 

 Biuerswee" r &ble ^^ & reen leaves from ovate to tri- 

 Solanum angular in outline, some lobed and others 



Dulcamara formed of three leaflets, the two lateral 

 Violet, purple ones quite small, all Vithout teeth. The 

 small flowers in diminutive loose clusters, 

 with deeply five-cleft corolla, violet or 

 purple, or sometimes lilac- white, the yellow conic centre 

 colored by the five stamens. The fruit (at first green) 

 an oval, translucent ruby red berry, hanging or droop- 

 ing in small clusters. The flower is visited by honey- 

 bees and the beelike flies. 2-8 feet high. In moist 

 thickets and by waysides. Naturalized from Europe. 

 Me., south to Del., and west to Kan. and Minn. 



A native species, with an erect, smooth, 

 branching stem, and ovate, wavy-toothed, 

 thin-stemmed leaves slightly unequal- 

 nigrum sided. Flowers white in small side clus- 



White ters, the corolla deeply five-lobed ; the 



July ~ calyx adhering to the globose berry, which 



is black when fully ripe, and clustered on 

 thin drooping stems. l-2 feet high. In waste places, 

 or near dwellings in cultivated ground, from Me., south, 

 and west to the Northwest Territory and Tex. 



A tall, and late in its season a reclining 

 Clammy Qr S p raw ii n g S p ec ies resembling Solatium, 



Ground Cherry . f ~. r . , . 



Physalis wlth spreading, sticky -hairy stem, and 



heterophylla broad heart-shaped leaves coarsely toothed 

 Green-yellow and pointed. Flower greenish yellow, 

 brown in the centre, with five triangular 

 short lobes ; anthers and berry dull yellow, 

 the latter enclosed within the enlarged calyx. 1-3 feet 

 high. Common in rich soil frtfm Me., south, and west 

 to Col. and Tex. A variable species, not yet satisfacto- 

 rily defined, but including perhaps more than one species. 

 Found at Manchester, Vt., by Miss Mary A. Day. 

 412 



Black 

 Nightshade 



