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aheg: % 1. 8. nigrum Linn. Sp. Plant. (1753) 186.—Erect, herbaceous 
768 pc ys _. SOLANACEAE. [Solanum. 
SOLANUM Linn. !7 ES: 
Herbs or shrubs or small trees, unarmed or spinous. Leaves alternate, 
often in @airs, a smaller one being developed in the axil of the larger one, 
entire or irregularly toothed or divided. Flowers solitary or more fre- 
quently in short racemes or cymes, lateral or terminal. Calyx 5-10-lobed 
or -partite. Corolla rotate or shortly campanulate ; tube short; limb 
5-10-lobed, plaited. Stamens 5, inserted on the throat of the corolla, 
exserted ; filaments short; anthers oblong*or lmear, erect and connivent 
into a cone around the style, opening by 2 terminal pores. Ovary 
2-celled, rarely 3-4-celled ; style simple; stigma small; ovules numerous. 
Fruit a small or large 2-celled many-seeded berry. Seeds numerous, 
discoid or reniforra. 
An immense genus, abundant in all tropical countries and especially so in 
tropical America, rarer in temperate regions. Species probably over 1200. 
Herbaceous, 1-3 ft. high. Leaves ovate. Flowers small, 4}-4in. 
diam. mA * Bes bee : 
Shrubby, 4-8 ft. high. Leaves lanceolate, often pinnatifid. Flowers 
large, fin. diam. .. =e ee — i .. 2. 8. aviculare. 
1, S. nigrum. 
S. sodomaeum Linn., a spinous species with stellate pubescence, pinnatifid leaves, and 
rather large globose yellow berries, has become naturalized in many localities between 
the North Cape and Tauranga. So also has S. auriculatum Ait., an unarmed densely 
woolly species with large leaves furnished with a pair of roundish auricles near the 
base of the petioles. The common potato (S. tuberosum Linn.) often lingers for a time 
in places where it has been cultivated. 
oo 
i 2 
from a 
somewhat weody base, glabrous or pubescent, 1-3 ft. high; branches 
spreading, angular, the angles sometimes minutely tuberculate. Leaves 
on slender petioles; blade 14-3in. long, ovate or ovate-rhomboid, acute 
or acuminate, narrowed into the petiole, entire or coarsely and irregularly 
toothed, membranous. Flowers small, white, drooping, }in. diam., in 
small umbellate 5-8-flowered cymes; peduncles slender, supra-axillary. 
Calyx 5-lobed to the middle. Corolla deeply 5-lobed. Berry 44 in. 
diam., globose, black or red.—Raoul Choix (1846) 43; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. 
Zel. 1 (1853) 182; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 200; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv 
(1869) 446; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 481. 
KerMaDEC Is~tANnps, NortH anp Sours Isuanps, CHatHam Isuanps: Not 
uncommon as far south as Central Otago. Sea-level to 2000 ft. A common weed 
in almost all parts of the world. 
2. S. avieulare Forst. f. Prodr. (1786) n. 107.—A leafy unarmed soft- 
wooded bush or shrub 4-10 ft. high, perfectly glabrous in all its parts ; 
branches spreading, smooth or marked with raised lines decurrent from 
the petioles. Leaves alternate, petiolate, variable in size and shape, 
4-12 in. long or even more, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate and entire, or 
regularly pinnatifidly lobed with 1-3 spreading lanceolate acute lobes 
on each side, dark-green, membranous, glabrous; veins purplish or brownish- 
purple. Cymes 1-3 in the axils of the upper leaves or lateral, shorter than 
the leaves, few- or many-flowered. Flowers #-Lin. diam., purplish. Calyx- 
lobes short, broad, obtuse. Corolla shortly and broadly 5-lobed. Filaments 
as long as or longer than the anthers; anthers oblong, spreading, opening 
at the tips by transverse slits which are usually continued down the 
sides. Berry broadly ovoid, 3-1 in. long, drooping, yellowish.—A. Rich. 
Hl. Nowo. Zel. (1832) 193; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 182; Handb. 
