APRIL 19, 1921 safford: synopsis of datura 179 



not possibly be identified with Datura alba Nees, as suggested by Dunal, 

 as that species is the typical white-flowered form of Datura nietel h. ; and 

 Datura innoxia, described below, has its "stalks, branches, and leaves, covered 

 with soft hairs." 



It is interesting to note that in the Hortus Clifortianus the first two syn- 

 onyms cited identify Linnaeus's Datura metel with the Stramonia, or Pomum 

 spinosum, described and figured by Johannes Bauhin, and clearly identified 

 by him with the Stramonia of Fuchsius and the Nux methel of Avicenna. 

 Bauhin's figures agree with that of Fuchsius (1542) in the form and surface 

 of the fruit, which bears very short and thick spines, not subulate or needle- 

 like prickles; indeed his second figure, here reproduced, is a reduced copy of 

 Fuchsius's.^ 



It is surprising that C. B. Clarke,^ in Hooker's Flora of British India, not 

 only ignores Linnaeus's references to the authorities above mentioned in con- 

 nection with Datura metel, but transfers this specific name from the metel- 

 nut or dhatura of India to a plant of American origin, citing as an illustration 

 of the species, not the figures of Fuchsius, Bauhinius, or Rumphius, but an 

 illustration in Curtis s Botanical Magazine (plate 1440) which on investigation 

 proves to be the drawing of a plant grown in London under the name Datura 

 innoxia, from seeds of American origin, identical with the Vera Cruz plant 

 described by Miller in 176S under the latter name. The specific identity of 

 the white and purple forms of the Asiatic Datura metel L. is recognized by the 

 best authorities on East Indian botany; but that the perfectly valid name 

 Datura metel should be discarded for the varietal name D. fastuosa, as by 

 Trimen/ is inexcusable. 



It was this Asiatic plant, called in India Dhatura, or Dtitra, that gave to 

 the genus its name. True to his principle of not adopting a barbarous word 

 for a generic name, Linnaeus latinized the East Indian Dhatura or Dutra; 

 modifying it, however, to the form Datura, and commending the name by the 

 following pun: "Daturae, licet originis sit peregrinae, vocabulum persistere 

 valet, cum a latina derivari potest; dantur et daturae forte in Indiis posthac 

 semina a lascivis foeminis maritis inertibus."* 



6. Datura innoxia Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8. Datura no. 5. 1768. 



Datura metel vSims, Curtis's Bot. Mag. 35: pi. 1440. 1812. Not D. metel L. 

 D. guayaquilensis H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 3: 8. 1818. 

 D. metel Dunal in DC. Prodr. 13': 543. 1852. 



'•' Compare the second figure of J. Bauhinius, Hist. Pi. 3: 624. (1651), with the colored 

 engraving in Fuchsius, Hist. Stirp. 690 (1542), which is clearly the true nux methal, or 

 East Indian dhatura, and is quite distinct from the American plant erroneously called 

 Datura metel in modern text-books. 



'^ Hooker, Fi. Br. Ind. 4: 243. 1885. 



' Handb. Fl. Ceyl. 3: 238. 1895. 



" Hort. Cliflfort. 56. 1737. 



