236 Dr. Francis Hamilton's Commentary 



remove the difficulties above stated. The same is the case, with 

 what is said in the liortus Kewensis (i. 387-), where the Hum- 

 matu is the only authority quoted for the D. Metel, with Willde- 

 now's inapplicable specific character. As however Linnaeus, Will- 

 denow, Poiret, and the author of the Hortus Kewensis had the 

 living plants before them, we cannot doubt of there being two 

 distinct species : but then the Hummatu is not the D. Metel 

 calyce terete ; nor the Dutra rubra the D. fasluosa pericarpio 

 tuberculato vel Icevi. On the whole, I am persuaded that the 

 D. alba nigra et rubra of Rumphius are mere varieties of the 

 same species, and not different from the Hummatu ; for although 

 in one of his figures the calyx is concealed by a leaf, so that its 

 angles cannot be seen, yet both have spines on the capsules. I 

 must leave to those who have an opportunity of seeing the 

 Egj'^ptian plant, to determine the difference between it and the 

 Hummatu in a manner more satisfactory than has been yet done. 

 -• Dr. Roxburgh {Hort. Beng. l6.) had both a Datura fastuosa 

 and a D. Metel ; and at one time at least, I know, considered 

 them as mere varieties ; but it is possible that he may have after- 

 wards found another species, the Dhuttira of the natives, and 

 called it Metel; while what the natives call Kala (black) Dhu- 

 tura, the Dutra nigra of Rumphius, he received as the D. fas- 

 tuosa with both single and double flowers. In the western pro- 

 vinces of Gangetic India I have indeed found a plant called 

 simply Dhutura or Dutra, abundantly different from the Kala 

 Dhutura, the Humynatu, and all the varieties of the Stramonia 

 indica of Rumphius ; and this may be the plant which Dr. Rox- 

 burgh latterly called D. Metel, although it more resembles the 

 Linnaean character of the D. Stramonium than that of the Metel, 

 and has much smaller flowers than the latter. Specimens of this 

 will be found in the collection which I have presented to the 

 East India Company. 



NiLA 



