178 JOURNAL OF THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES VOL. 11, NO. 8 



5. Datura metel L. Sp. PI. 1: 179. 1753. Fig. 1, B, C. 



Datura fashiosa L. Syst. ed. lo. 2: 932. 1759. 



Datura alba Nees, Trans. Linn. Soc. 17: 73. 1834. 

 Type Locality: "Habitat in Asia, Africa." 

 Range: Tropical and subtropical Asia and Africa; now widely cultivated 



throughout the warmer regions of both hemispheres. 



In the first edition of the Species Plantarum Linnaeus briefly described this 

 species as "Datura pericarpiis spinosis nutantibus, globosis," and cited his 

 earlier description of it in the Hortus Clifortiamis (1737). In the latter work 

 it is identified with the ''Solanum porno spinoso rotunda longo fiore" of Bauhin 

 (1023); "Stramonia multis dicta she ponium spinosmn' of Bauhin's Historia 

 (1651) ; the "hummatu" of Rheede's Hortus Malaharicus (2: 47. pi. 28. 1678) ; 

 ''Stramonia seu Datura, porno spinoso rotunda, longe flore" of Hermann (1687) ; 

 and ''Stramonium fructo spinoso rotunda, flore albo simplici,'" of Tournefort 

 and Boerhaave. The range is cited as "Crescit in Oriente, in Malabaria, 

 Aegyptio, etc." 



In the second edition of the Species Plantarum (1762) Linnaeus adds to his 

 citations Rumph's Herbarium Amboinense (5: pi. 8y. 1755), in which the 



simple -flowered Datura metel is figured, ac- 

 companied by the double-flowered form 

 called Datura fastuosa by Linnaeus in the 

 tenth edition of his Sy sterna (1759). He 

 also adds to his description "foliis cordatis 

 subintegris pubescentibus," but this is not 

 applicable to the true Datura metel. This 

 interpolation, if it can be so called, is re- 

 sponsible for much of the resulting confusion 

 of this and allied species. Dunal, in his 

 description of Datura metel in DeCandolle's 

 Prodromus, does not cite the original de- 

 scription of Linnaeus' s Datura 7netel in the 

 first edition of the Species Plantarum, but 

 that of the second edition, in which the 

 plant is erroneously described as pubescent. 

 In the first edition Linnaeus takes great 

 care to identify his Datura metel with the 

 "metel nut" of Asia. Dunal, on the other 

 hand, amends the original description of the 

 species, and refers to it a plant collected by 

 Berlandier in the vicinity of Victoria, in 

 Illustra- eastern Mexico, undoubtedly distinct from 

 the true Datura metel L., but identical with 

 the pubescent white-flowered Datura innoxia 

 Miller, described from a type also collected 

 in eastern Mexico. The latter species can- 



Fi 



g. 2. Datura metel L- 

 tion of J. Bauhinius under the 

 name "Stramonia multis dicta sive 

 Pomum spinosum," Hist. PI. 3: 

 624. 165L cited by Linnaeus in 

 his Hortus Cliffortianus. 



