SOLANACE2E, the nightshade family, an order of plants containing about 1,500 species arranged in 70 genera, mostly herbs and shrubs widely distributed in warm climates, and es pecially in tropical America. They are usually malodorous and are characterized by alternate, lobed or undivided leaves, monopetalous flow ers of various colors and sizes arranged in various ways — fascicles, cymes, solitary and followed by two- to many-celled fruits with numerous seeds. The order is of wide eco nomic importance, since it contains several leading food-plants, such as the potato, tomato, tobacco, cayenne, red or garden pepper and various weeds and garden plants, as the petunia, jimsonweed, mandrake and others. The typical and foremost genus is Solanum, of which more than 500 species have been described, mostly natives of tropical America. They are smooth, downy or spiny plants with white or blue axil lary flowers borne singly, in cymes, or in fascicles, followed by roundish two-celled ber ries containing many kidney-shaped seeds. The principal species is S tuberosum, the common potato (q.v.), in which, as in many other mem bers, is found an alkaloid, solanin, reputed to produce unpleasant physiological effects when the plants are eaten to excess. S. melongena,
the egg-plant, is another leading food-species. It was formely regarded as noxious; on which ac count Girarde (1597) entreats his countrymen to eschew it. S. aviculare or laciniatum is the kangaroo apple of Australia and New Zealand, where its fruits are eaten. S. muricantunt, the pepino, melon-pear or melon-shrub, yields an edible fruit suggesting an acid-flavored egg plant fruit. It is grown to a small extent in the United States. The fruits of several East Indian species are eaten either alone or in cur ries, etc. Two European species, S. nigrum, the common nightshade, and S. dulcamara, the bitter-sweet, are common weeds in the United States. The horse nettle (S. carolinense) and S. rostratum are native, spiny weeds. Several species were formerly used in medicine and still are in the Orient. S. saponaceum yields berries which are used as a substitute for soap. Sev eral species, particularly S. fctsminoides, the potato vine, and S. seaforthianum, are popular greenhouse plants of easy culture.