Solanum Carolinense. 87
Plant from one foot to two feet high. Stem herbaceous, rigid,
branched. Branches spreading. Stem and branches armed with
sharp prickles and densely beset with stellated hairs. Leaves large,
ovate-sinuated, or ovate-lanceolate, entire at base, deeply sinuated—
the angles somewhat acute; scabrous, covered all over with the same
dense stellated hairiness which covers the whole plant, but hardly
tomentose. The veins and costa armed with prickles. Racemes
loose, simple, lateral and terminal, from four to eight-flowered.
Calix closely beset with fine hairs, and prickly. Corolla expanding
as common in the genus, pale-blue—blue variegated with blotches
of white,—or wholly of a faded-white colour. Stamens and pistil of
a golden-yellow hue. Berries the size of large May-duke cherries,
ochre-yellow, and frequently persistent during winter. Flowers
from May until August. Grows in cultivated grounds from Canada
to Georgia, appearing to prefer sandy soil, near road sides and rubbish
in the vicinity of habitations. Very common. Annual or perennial
?
The genus Solanum is one of those very ancient assemblages of
plants, designated by terms, the origin of which is either enveloped
in obscurity, or lost in the antiquity of their use. It comprises plants
very naturally grouped together, by striking botanical affinities. The
American species are but six or seven, of which the one here figured,
is perhaps the most common. It is, indeed, except the S. nigrum,
the only indigenous species found in the middle and northern states,