The Tomato or Love-apple, (_Lycopersicum esculentum_,) has flowers which bear a great resemblance to those of some of the species of Solanum, but the anthers open longitudinally and are connected by a membrane into a kind of cylinder. The seeds also are hairy; and the berry is wrinkled, and not of so firm a texture as in Solanum. The flowers of this plant are frequently united, so as to appear to have double or treble the usual number of stamens, and two or three styles; and when this is the case, the fruit appears deformed from two or three of the ovaries having grown together. The fruit is very good to eat, and wholesome either boiled or stewed, or as sauce. There are several species, all of which were formerly included in the genus Solanum. The plants belonging to the genus Capsicum have flowers which are very much like those of the Tomato, and which have similar anthers; but the fruit differs in being a dry, inflated, hollow berry, inclosing numerous seeds, and in both the seeds and their cover having a fiery biting heat to the taste. There are several species with fruit of greater or less size, and different colours; generally red or yellow, but sometimes white or green. The best Cayenne pepper is made from the pods of _C. frutescens_, dried in an oven and then reduced to powder. The annual species (_C. annuum_) has many varieties; one of which produces the small pods called by the market-gardeners Chilies, and which are eaten fresh by dyspeptic patients, to assist digestion. The Winter Cherry (_Physalis Alkekengi_) has the same kind of flower as the other genera of this tribe. The corolla is rotate, and obscurely five-lobed; and the stamens, which are connivent, (that is, lying close together), have very large anthers. When the corolla falls, the calyx becomes inflated, and expands to a large size, completely enclosing the little berry-like fruit in the centre. A very beautiful preparation may be made by soaking this calyx in water till it becomes completely macerated; that is, till all the pulp is decayed and only the fibrous part left. The inflated calyx then appears like a beautiful network covering, with the bright red berry in the centre. To macerate the calyx properly, it should be left in the same water without changing, for about six weeks. The Cape Gooseberry (_P. peruviana_) is another species of the genus Physalis; but instead of being a native of Europe, it is from Peru; and its flowers, instead of being white, are yellow, with a dark red spot at the base of each lobe of the corolla: the berry also is yellow. This species is called Cape Gooseberry, because it is cultivated as a fruit at the Cape of Good Hope. [Illustration: FIG. 69.—DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (_Atropa Belladonna_).]