10. C. glomerata, Choisy. Flowers _very densely cl.u.s.tered_, forming knotty ma.s.ses closely encircling the stem of the foster plant, much imbricated with scarious oblong _bracts, their tips recurved-spreading; sepals nearly similar_, shorter than the oblong-cylindrical tube of the corolla; stamens nearly as long as the oblong-lanceolate obtuse spreading or reflexed corolla-lobes; style several times longer than the ovary.--Wet prairies, Ohio to Minn., Kan., and Tex., mostly on tall Compositae. The rope-like twists (--' thick), of white flowers with golden yellow anthers imbedded in a ma.s.s of curly bracts, have a singular appearance.

ORDER 74. SOLANaCEae. (NIGHTSHADE FAMILY.)

_Herbs (or rarely shrubs), with colorless juice and alternate leaves, regular 5-merous and 5-androus flowers, on bractless pedicels; the corolla imbricate or valvate in the bud, and mostly plaited; the fruit a 2-celled (rarely 3--5-celled) many-seeded capsule or berry._--Seeds campylotropous or amphitropous. Embryo mostly slender and curved in fleshy alb.u.men. Calyx usually persistent. Stamens mostly equal, inserted on the corolla. Style and stigma single. Placentae in the axis, often projecting far into the cells. (Foliage rank-scented, and with the fruits mostly narcotic, often very poisonous, while some are edible.)--A large family in the tropics, but very few indigenous in our district. It shades off into Scrophulariaceae, from which the plaited regular corolla and 5 equal stamens generally distinguish it.

[*] Corolla wheel-shaped, 5-parted or 5-lobed; the lobes valvate and their margins usually turned inward in the bud. Anthers connivent. Fruit a berry.

1. Solanum. Anthers opening by pores or c.h.i.n.ks at the tip.

[*][*] Corolla various, not wheel-shaped, nor valvate in the bud.

Anthers separate.

[+] Fruit a berry, closely invested by an herbaceous (not angled) calyx.

2. Chamaesaracha. Corolla plicate, 5-angulate. Pedicels solitary, recurved in fruit.

[+][+] Fruit a berry, enclosed in the bladdery-inflated calyx. Corolla widely expanding.

3. Physalis. Calyx 5-cleft. Corolla 5-lobed or nearly entire. Berry juicy, 2-celled.

4. Nicandra. Calyx 5-parted. Corolla nearly entire. Berry dry, 3--5-celled.

[+][+][+] Fruit a berry with the unaltered calyx persistent at its base.

5. Lycium. Corolla funnel-form or tubular, not plaited. Berry small, 2-celled.

[+][+][+][+] Fruit a capsule.

6. Hyoscyamus. Calyx urn-shaped, enclosing the smooth 2-celled capsule, which opens by the top falling off as a lid. Corolla and stamens somewhat irregular.

7. Datura. Calyx prismatic, 5-toothed. Capsule p.r.i.c.kly, naked, more or less 4-celled, 4-valved. Corolla funnel-form.

8. Nicotiana. Calyx tubular-bell-shaped, 5-cleft. Capsule enclosed in the calyx, 2-celled.

1. SOLaNUM, Tourn. NIGHTSHADE.

Calyx and wheel-shaped corolla 5-parted or 5-cleft (rarely 4--10-parted), the latter plaited in the bud, and valvate or induplicate. Stamens exserted; filaments very short; anthers converging around the style, opening at the tip by two pores or c.h.i.n.ks. Berry usually 2-celled.--Herbs, or shrubs in warm climates, the larger leaves often accompanied by a smaller lateral (rameal) one; the peduncles also mostly lateral and extra-axillary.--A vast genus, chiefly in warmer regions, including the POTATO (S. TUBERSUM) and the EGG-PLANT (S.

MELONGeNA); while the TOMATO (LYCOPeRSIc.u.m ESCULeNTUM) is closely related. (Name of unknown derivation.)

[*] _Not p.r.i.c.kly; anthers blunt; flowers and globose naked berries small._

[+] _Perennial, climbing or twining._

S. DULCAMaRA, L. (BITTERSWEET.) More or less p.u.b.escent; leaves ovate-heart-shaped, the upper halberd-shaped, or with two ear-like lobes or leaflets at base; flowers (purple or blue) in small cymes; berries oval, red.--Moist banks and around dwellings. June--Sept. (Nat. from Eu.)

[+][+] _Simple-leaved annuals._

1. S. triflrum, Nutt. Low, spreading, slightly hairy or nearly glabrous; _leaves oblong, pinnatifid_ (7--9-lobed) with rounded sinuses; peduncles 1--3-flowered; corolla white; _berries green_, as large as a small cherry.--Central Kan., and westward; chiefly a weed near dwellings.

2. S. ngrum, L. (COMMON NIGHTSHADE.) Low, much branched and often spreading, nearly glabrous, rough on the angles; _leaves ovate, wavy-toothed_; _flowers_ white, _in small umbel-like lateral cl.u.s.ters_, drooping; _calyx spreading_; filaments hairy; _berries_ globular, _black_.--Shaded grounds and fields; common, appearing as if introduced, but a cosmopolite. July--Sept.

Var. VILLSUM, Mill. Low, somewhat viscid-p.u.b.escent or villous; leaves small, conspicuously angular-dentate; filaments glabrous; berries yellow.--Established near Philadelphia, from ballast. (Adv. from Eu.)

S. GRaCILE, Link. Cinereous-p.u.b.escent or p.u.b.erulent, rather tall (2--3 high), with virgate spreading branches; leaves _ovate and ovate-lanceolate, nearly entire_; corolla white or bluish; _calyx somewhat appressed to the black berry_.--Coast of N. C., and about ballast near Philadelphia. (Adv. from S. Am.)

[*][*] _More or less p.r.i.c.kly; anthers tapering upward; p.u.b.escence stellate._

[+] _Perennial; fruit naked; anthers equal; corolla violet, rarely white._

3. S. Carolinense, L. (HORSE-NETTLE.) _Hirsute or roughish-p.u.b.escent with 4--8-rayed hairs; p.r.i.c.kles stout, yellowish_, copious (rarely scanty); _leaves oblong_ or ovate, obtusely sinuate-toothed or lobed or sinuate-pinnatifid, racemes simple, soon lateral; _calyx-lobes ac.u.minate; berries about 6" broad_.--Sandy soil and waste grounds, Conn. to Iowa, south to Fla. and Tex.

4. S. elaeagniflium, Cav. _Silvery-canescent with_ dense scurf-like p.u.b.escence of _many-rayed hairs; p.r.i.c.kles small, slender_, more or less copious or wanting; _leaves lanceolate_ to oblong and linear, sinuate-repand or entire; _calyx-lobes slender_; berry _seldom 6" in diameter_.--Prairies and plains. E. Kan. to Tex., and westward.

5. S. Torreyi, Gray. _Cinereous with a somewhat close p.u.b.escence of_ about _equally 9--12-rayed hairs; p.r.i.c.kles small and stout_, scanty or nearly wanting; _leaves ovate_ with truncate or slightly cordate base, sinuately 5--7-lobed (4--6' long); _calyx-lobes short-ovate, abruptly long-ac.u.minate_; berry 1' _in diameter_.--Prairies, etc., E. Kan. and Tex.

[+][+] _Annual; fruit closely covered; lowest anther much the longest, corolla yellow._

6. S. rostratum, Dunal. Very p.r.i.c.kly, somewhat h.o.a.ry or yellowish with a copious wholly stellate p.u.b.escence (1--2 high); leaves 1--2-pinnatifid; calyx densely p.r.i.c.kly; stamens and style much declined.--Plains of Neb.

to Tex.; spreading eastward to Ill. and Tenn.

2. CHAMaeSaRACHA, Gray.

Calyx herbaceous, closely investing the globose berry (or most of it), obscurely if at all veiny. Corolla rotate, 5-angulate, plicate in the bud. Filaments filiform; anthers separate, oblong.--Perennials, with mostly narrow entire or pinnatifid leaves tapering into margined petioles, and filiform naked pedicels solitary in the axils, refracted or recurved in fruit. (_Saracha_ is a tropical American genus dedicated to _Isidore Saracha_, a Spanish Benedictine; the prefix ?aa?, _on the ground_.)

1. C. sordida, Gray. Much branched from root or base, somewhat cinereous with short viscid p.u.b.escence; leaves obovate-spatulate or cuneate-oblong to oblanceolate, repand to incisely pinnatifid; calyx when young villous-viscid; corolla pale yellow or violet-purple (6" broad); berry as large as a pea.--Dry or clayey soil, central and W. Kan. to Tex. and Arizona.

3. PHSALIS, L. GROUND CHERRY.

Calyx 5-cleft, reticulated and enlarging after flowering, at length much inflated and enclosing the 2-celled globular (edible) berry. Corolla between wheel-shaped and funnel-form, the very short tube marked with 5 concave spots at the base; the plaited border somewhat 5-lobed or barely 5--10-toothed. Stamens 5, erect; anthers separate, opening lengthwise.--Herbs (in this country), with the leaves often unequally in pairs, and the 1-flowered nodding peduncles extra-axillary; flowering through the summer. (Name f?sa???, _a bladder_, from the inflated calyx.)

[*] _Corolla large, white or tinged with blue, without dark centre, with almost entire border; p.u.b.escence simple._

1. P. grandiflra, Hook. Clammy-p.u.b.escent, erect; leaves lance-ovate, pointed, entire or nearly so; corolla 1--2' wide when expanded, and with a woolly ring in the throat; fruiting calyx globular, apparently nearly filled by the berry.--S. sh.o.r.e of L. Superior to Sask.; Providence Island, L. Champlain (_Perkins_).

[*][*] _Corolla lurid greenish-white or yellow, mostly with dark centre, 3--10" broad._

[+] _Annuals, glabrous or p.u.b.escence minute; anthers violet._

2. P. Philadelphica, Lam. Leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, oblique at base, entire, repand, or very sparingly angulate-toothed; _corolla brownish- or violet-spotted in the centre, 7--10" broad_; calyx at maturity globose and completely filled by the large reddish or purple berry and open at the mouth.--In fertile soil, Penn. to Minn. and Tex.

3. P. angulata, L. Much branched; leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, sharply and irregularly _laciniate-toothed_; peduncles filiform; _corolla unspotted, very small_ (3--6" broad when expanded); fruiting calyx conical-ovate with a truncate or sunken base, 10-angled, loosely inflated, at length well filled by the greenish-yellow berry.--Open rich grounds, Penn. to Minn., and southward.

[+][+] _Strong-scented, villous or p.u.b.escent with viscid or glandular simple hairs; fruiting calyx ovate-pyramidal, carinately 5-angled, closed, loosely enveloping the green or yellow berry; leaves ovate or cordate._