Part 124 (1/2)

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._