318 THE SOLANUM FAMILY. 
strongly veined, with 5 stiff, broad, almost prickly lobes. Corolla above 
an inch long, pale, dingy-yellow, with purplish veins. Capsule globular, 
with numerous small seeds. 
In waste, stony places, on roadsides, &c., in central and southern 
Europe and western Asia, and having been formerly much cultivated 
for its medicinal properties, has spread far into northern Europe. In 
Britain, chiefly on rubbish and waste places, about villages and old 
castles, in England, southern Scotland, and Ireland. Fl. summer. 
os 
III. SOLANUM. SOLANUM. 
Herbs, shrubs, or, in exotic species, low trees ; the flowers usually in 
cymes, on short, lateral, or terminal peduncles. Calyx of 5 or rarely 
more divisions. Corolla rotate, 5-lobed, with scarcely any tube. Anthers’ - 
almost sessile, closed or joined together in an erect cone round the style 
in the centre of the flower, each anther opening by a small pore at the 
top. Fruit a berry, with several seeds. : | 
A very large genus, widely spread over the globe, but chiefly in ~ 
tropical regions, and more especially in South America. ‘The cultivated 
species include the Potato (S. tuberosum), the Tomato or Love-apple (S. 
Lycopersicum), the Hgg-plant or Bruyall (S. Melongena), and several 
ornamental ones. : 
Climber, shrubby at the base. Leaves slightly cordate or 3-lobed 1. S. Duleamara, 
Erect annual or biennial. Leaves ovate, angularly toothed. . 2 S. nigrum, 
1. S. Dulcamara, Linn. (fig. 715). Bittersweet, Nightshade.—Stem 
shrubby at the base, with climbing or straggling branches, often many 
feet in length, but dying far back in winter. Leaves stalked, ovate or 
ovate-lanceolate, 2 or 3 inches long, usually broadly cordate at the base 
and entire, but sometimes with an additional smaller lobe or segment 
on each side, either quite glabrous or downy on both sides as well as 
the stem. Flowers rather small, blue, with yellow anthers, in loose 
cymes, on lateral peduncles shorter than the leaves. Berries small, 
globular or ovoid, and red. 
In hedges and thickets, in moist shady situations, all over Europe, 
except the extreme north, represented all across temperate Asia by a 
closely allied species, or perhaps a mere variety. Generally diffused 
over England and Ireland, but more rare in Scotland. Fl. summer. [A 
maritime variety (marinum, Bab.), with a prostrate branched stem and 
fleshy habit, occurs on the south coast of England. | . 
2. S. nigrum, Linn. (fig. 716). Black Si—An erect annual or bien- 
nial, with very spreading branches, about a foot high; in Britain 
usually glabrous or nearly so, but on the Continent often hairy or 
rough on the angles. Leaves stalked, ovate, with coarse angular teeth. 
Flowers small and white, in little cymes almost contracted into umbels, 
on short, lateral peduncles. Berries small, globular, usually black, but 
sometimes, especially on the Continent, green, yellow, or dingy-red. 
One of the widest spread weeds over every part of the globe, except 
the extreme north and south; varying so much in warmer regions © 
as to have been described under more than forty names. Common in 
some parts of England, but local in Scotland and Ireland, and only 
