1032 
LXXXVI. SOLANACE^E. 
[Solanum. 
8. S. verbascifolium (Verbascum-like), Ait.; Dun. in DC. Prod. xiii. 
part i. 114; Benth. FI. Austr. iv. 449. A tall stout unarmed shrub, attaining 
often 10 to 20ft., thickly covered with a stellate tomentum often very dense and 
lloccose or velvety, sometimes more scattered on the upper side of the leaves. 
Leaves ovate, acuminate, entire, soft and thick, often 6 to Sin. long, on long 
petioles. Flowers often numerous, in dense pedunculate dichotomous cymes, 
terminal or at length lateral, the pedicels very short. Calyx densely tomentose, 
the lobes shorter than the tube, thick and obtuse. Corolla white, under 4in. 
diameter. Filaments short ; anthers scarcely tapering but opening only at the 
end. Berry globular, yellow, under £in. diameter.— R. Br. Prod. 444 ; Clarke, 
in Hook. FI. Brit. Ind. iv. 230 ; Wight. Ic. t. 1398. 
Hab.: Broadsound and Shoalwater Bay, R. Brown; Brisbane Biver, Moreton Bay, Fraser, 
F. v. Mueller; Rockhampton, Rockingham Bay, Dallachy ; Nerkool Creek, Boicman ; Port 
Denison, Fitzalan, Dallachy. 
The species is widely dispersed over tropical Asia and America. 
Bark bitter, slightly poisonous. Dr. T. L. Bancroft. 
Wood of a yellow colour, easily worked, of a close grain, and light. — Bailey’s Cat. Ql. Woods 
No. 289. 
9. *S. auriculatum (auriculate), Ait.; Dun. in DC. Prod. xiii. parti. 115 ; 
Benth. FI. Austr. iv. 450. A tree closely resembling S. verbascifolium, but more 
densely woolly, the leaves more acuminate, with a pair of stipule-like small 
semicircular leaves at the base of most of the petioles, and purple flowers. 
Berries yellowish, A to fin. diameter. 
Hab.: A tropical American species, naturalised in many parts of the colony. 
10. S. macoorai (aboriginal name for south peak of Bellenden Ker Range), 
Bail. Bot. Bull. viii. A shrub of straggling habit, attaining from 5 to 7ft. in 
height, the young shoots purplish, appearing glabrous, but with the aid of a 
lens seen to be more or less covered with minute stellate hairs. Prickles straw- 
coloured, straight, on the branches, petioles, midrib and principal veins on both 
sides of leaf. Leaves ovate, acuminate, unequal-sided at the base and tapering 
to a petiole of about 2in.; the margins repandly lobed. No flowers seen. Fruit 
solitary, on a peduncle of about lin., globular, yellow, about fin. diameter. 
Calyx-tube (as seen at base of fruit) with 5 blunt prominent ribs ; lobes 2 or 3 
lines long, with recurved points. 
Hab.: Summit of south peak, Bellenden Ker. 
11. S. discolor (2-colored), R. Br. Prod. 445; Benth. FI. Austr. iv. 450. 
An erect shrub, with weak half-climbing branches, the young ones as well as 
the under side of the leaves and inflorescence silvery or hoary with a minute 
exceedingly close but dense stellate tomentum. Prickles few, slender on the 
branches and veins of the leaves or in some specimens none. Leaves petiolate, 
irregularly oval elliptical or broadly oblong, rather obtuse, entire or irregularly 
sinuate, glabrous and smooth on the upper surface, 1 to 2in. long in flowering 
specimens, larger in barren shoots. Flowers rather small, in simple lateral 
racemes, few or even solitary with a very short common peduncle on the fruit- 
bearing specimens, numerous along a slender rhachis but very deciduous upon 
apparently sterile ones, the pedicels short at the time of flowering, 3 to 4 lines 
long and thickened under the fruit. Calyx very small and shortly toothed when 
in flower, somewhat enlarged and more deeply cleft under the fruit. Corolla 
white, deeply lobed, about or under £in. diameter. Berries globular, of a 
greenish-white, about 4 lines diameter. — Dun. in DC. Prod. xiii. part i. 293 ; 
S. corifolium, F. v. M. Fragm. ii. 166. 
Hab.: All parts. 
This and the three following species (S. stelligerum, parvifolium, and ferocissimum ) are closely 
allied to each other, having nearly the same flowers and fruit, and differing chiefly in foliage 
and prickles — Benth. 
