OTGHTSHADE FAMILY. 



251 



Plant oT a greyisli aspect, viscid-pubescent and somewhat fetid. Root annual. Stem 2- 

 4 feet long, branching, often straggling or procumbent unless supported. Flowers in 

 naked lateral racemose clusters ; common peduncle 1-2 inches long, dichotomously divid- 

 ed, the sub-divisions articulated to the pedicels of the flowers. Calyx-segments 5-10, 

 linear-lanceolate, long. Corolla yellow, pubescent, the lobes 5-10, lanceolate, spreading. 

 Anthers cohering, acuminate, with the points recurved. Berries large (1-3 or 4 inches or 

 more in diameter), globose or flatly depressed and orbicular, often remarkably torose or 

 distorted by large swelling ridges, red or reddish orange-color when mature. 



Gardens and lots : cultivated. Native of Spanish America. Fl. June - August. Fr. 

 August - September. 



Obs. This is cultivated for its succulent acid fruit — wliich, as asauce, 

 is considered very healthful, — and has, of late years, become a favorite 

 and almost universal dish, in its season. Numerous varieties are found in 

 cultivation ; the fruit varying in color, being yellow, deep-red and light- 

 crimson ; some have the surface smooth, and in others it is deeply fur- 

 rowed. The larger berries are usually in an abnornal condition, con- 

 taining numerous cells, and sometimes appearing as if produced by the 

 union of several ovaries. The small round kind, known as " Cherry To- 

 mato," is probably L. cerasiforme, Dunal ; this, also, varies in color, 

 and has probably hybridized with the ordinarily cultivated species, to 

 produce the intermediate forms that are often met with. * 



2. SOLA'NUM, L. Nightshade and Potato. 



[A name of obscure and uncertain meaning.] 



Calyx 5-10-parted, persistent. Corolla rotate or subcampanulate ; 

 tube short ; limb plicate, mostly 5-lobed. Stamens mostly 5, inserted 

 on the throat of the corolla, exserted ; anthers connivent, opening at 

 apex by 2 pores. Berry 2- (rarely 3-4-) celled. Leaves various ; 

 flowers in cymose clusters — on mostly lateral and extra-axillary pedun- 

 cles. 



* Anthers blunt ; plants not prickly. 



1. S. nigrum, L. Stem herbaceous, angular, branched, scabrous on 

 the angles ; leaves ovate, obscurely repand-dentate ; flowers subumbel- 

 late ; fruit globose,* black. 

 Black Solanoi. Nightshade. 



Fr. Morelle noire. Germ. Der schwarze Nachtschatten. Span. Ter- 

 ba mora. 



Root annual. Stem 1-2 feet high, much branched, angular or slightly winged. Leaves 

 2-3 inches long ; petioles about an inch long. Umbels lateral above the axils, few-flowered, 

 nodding. Corolla white. 



Waste places, about gardens and dwellings. Native of Europe. FL July. i^'r. Sept. 



Obs. A homely, worthless, and even deleterious weed, — which ought to 

 be carefully expelled from tlae vicinity of all dwellings. 

 . 2. S. Bulcama' ra, L. Somewhat shrubby and climbing ; leaves cor- 

 date-ovate, the upper ones often hastate or with 2 ear-like lobes at base ; 

 flowers in lateral cymes ; fruit oval, red. 



