SOLAN UM. 
81 
the edges quite even and entire. Young shoots, petioles, ped., 
pedic. and cal. more loosely furry tomentose. Petioles stout 
apparently auriculato-stipulate at their base by the develop- 
ment of two oval or rounded wavy small evanescent and pre- 
sently caducous 1. from their axillary buds, which prove them- 
selves however to be ultimately quite abortive, drying up and 
withering away. Ped. of cymes stout erect 3 or 4 in. long. 
Cymes at first densely compact subhemispherical, then spread- 
ing fastigiate dichotomouslv branched, branches short thick 
ending in short rac. of handsome subsessile full v.-blue scent- 
less fl. 8-10 lines in diam. Cal. densely woolly and w. like the 
branches and short thick pedic., lobes elliptic-ovate. Cor. 
stellato-pubescent and hoary outside, lobes broadly ovate-acute 
spreading or subreflexed, each with a w. streak or ray at its 
base forming a 5-rayed star in the fl. Anth. oblong bright 
chrome-y. Style filiform, stigma gr. Berries the size of a 
small marble or cherry, always stiffly erect, whilst young floc- 
coso-tomentose, finally glabrescent and in Mad. always of a 
pale dull watery (sometimes greenish) ochre-y., very juicy and 
much devoured by birds. Hence its rapid diffusion since 1833, 
when it was first raised by myself from dried berries (of a full 
bright red-lead colour !) received from Eio de Janeiro, though 
the sp. is said to be originally from Madagascar and the Mau- 
ritius. 
§ 4. Sodomela Lowe. Shr. or suffrutescent more or less 
spinose. Pubescence stellate. L. repandly sinuate or 
sinuato-pinnatifid. Cymes or rac. few-fld. Fl. middle- 
sized (as in S. tuberosum L.) v.-blue or lilac. Berries 
globose pyriform or ovoidal, size of a small apple, crab 
or wallnut, |-1 in. in diam., dry, with a hard tough 
coriaceous skin or rind, y. or or. 
f6. S. sodomeum L. 
Suffruticose leafy full or dark shining gr. spinose ; branches 
hard woody round, whilst young shining as if varnished and 
dark purplish or blackish above ; 1. sinuato-pinnati-lobate with 
broad dilated rounded often 3-lobed lobes and wide rounded 
sinuses sparsely y. -spinose on both sides, smooth or glabrescent 
and shining above, thinly stellato-puberulous beneath, ciliato- 
pubescent at the edges ; ped. supraaxillary sliott 2-6- (often 
2-)fld., fl. racemose v.-blue or lilac the lowest remote ; pedic. 
exarticulate erect; fr. drooping hard globose about 1 in. in 
diam. pale y. — Linn. Sp. 268; Lam. 111. no. 2358, t. 115. f. 1; 
Poir. in Lam. Diet. iv. 298 ; Brot. i. 283 ; Pers. i. 227 ; Ait. 
Hort. Kew. (ed. 2) i. 403 ; Fl. Gr. t. 235 (fl. rose-lilac !) ; 
Spr. i. 688 ; Gren. et Godr. ii. 544 ; Willk. et Lange ii. 524. S. 
Sodomceum a et /3 Dun. in DC. xiii. 1. 366. S. Hermanni Dun. 
e 5 
