Solarium.] LIV. SOLANACEJC. 319 



when accidentally introduced with cultivation. Fl. the whole summer 

 and autumn. 



IV. ATROPA. ATROPA. 



Calyx broadly campanulate, deeply 5-lobed. Corolla campanulate, 

 regular. Fruit a berry. 



A genus confined by some to the single European species, but ex- 

 tended by others to include several herbs or shrubs from warmer 

 climates, of no interest to the British botanist. 



1. A. Belladonna, Linn. (fig. 717). Dwale, Belladonna, Deadly 

 Nightshade. — An erect, glabrous or slightly downy herb, with a per- 

 ennial rootstock and branching stem. Leaves stalked, rather large, 

 ovate and entire, with a smaller one usually proceeding from the same 

 point, often so small as to look like a stipule. Flowers solitary, on 

 short peduncles, in the forks of the stem or in the axils of the leaves. 

 Corolla pale, purplish-blue, nearly an inch long, with 5 broad short 

 lobes. Stamens shorter, with distinct filaments. Berry rather large, 

 globular. 



In waste, stony places, in southern Europe and west central Asia, 

 extending over central Europe, chiefly about old castles and ruins. In 

 Britain, it is only found in similar localities in southern England, and 

 a few stations farther north, or in Ireland, probably the remains of 

 former cultivation. Fl. summer. 



LV. OROBANCHACE^. THE BROOMEAPE FAMILY. 



Herbs, of a brown or purplish colour, passing into yellow or 

 blue, but never green, always parasitical on the roots of other 

 herbs or shrubs ; the stems simple or rarely branched, erect, 

 bearing scales of the same colour instead of leaves, and a ter- 

 minal spike of flowers, each in the axil of a bract, similar to the 

 scales of the stem, and accompanied often by a pair of smaller 

 bracts at the base of the calyx. Calyx variously divided, 

 usually into 2 or 4 lobes or sepals. Corolla broadly tubular or 

 campanulate, often curved, the lobes more or less 2-lipped. 

 Stamens 4, in 2 pairs. Anthers 2-celled, the cells parallel, and 

 usually pointed at the lower end. Style single, with a 2-lobed 

 stigma. Ovary and capsule 1 -celled, the latter opening in 

 2 valves, with numerous small seeds attached to parieta] 

 placentas. 



A small Order, spread over the greater part of the globe, but chiefly 

 in temperate climates, and more abundant in the Old World than in 

 America. The floral characters are nearly those of the Scrophularia 

 family, with the exception of the ovary and capsule, which are never 

 divided into cells, the placentas not joining in the centre. The absence 



