ft
i Í
half the length of the corolla. Filaments awl-sliaped, white,
liairy at tlie base. Anthers cordate-oblong, violet, the cells
parallel, opening loiigitiidiiially, distinct at the top. Ovarium
ovate, white, bilocular. Style filiform, clammy, white,
about as long as the stamens. Stigma capitate, green, M'ith
2, shallow, revolute, pruinose lobes. Berry globose, the size of
a cherry, scarlet, 2-celled. Placenta; 2, large, pulpy. Seeds
oval, compressed, covered with a pale brown cellular testa,
and imbedded in the fleshy pulp.
Our drawing of this curious species was taken in September
last from a plant which flowered and subsequently
ripened its fruit in the open border of the Chelsea Botanic
Garden, where it had been raised the preceeding year from
seeds received by Mr. Anderson from the Royal Botanic
Garden at Berlin, under the very appropriate name we have
adopted, and which had most probably been given to it by
Professor Link, hut of this we are not certain, as we have
been unable to find any notice of the species. Like the rest
of its congeners it is most probably a native of Peru. The
genus was established by Ruiz and Pavon, who have erroneously
described the fruit as unilocular. It is only distinguished
from Solanum by its filaments being woolly at the
base and closing up the mouth of the tube of the corolla,
and by its cordate anthers, with the cells opening longitudinally.
The plant is shrubby, and requires to be protected in the
greenhouse during winter. It is easily multiplied both by
seeds and cuttings.
The genus was named after Isidore Saracha, a Benedictine
monk, much attached to the study of Botany, and who
had enriched the Royal Gardens at Madrid with many rare
plants. D . Don.
1. Berry.
JL