462 



SOLANACE^. 



SEMEN ET FOLIA DATURA ALB^. 



Seeds and Leaves of the Indian or White-f.oivered Datura. 



Botanical Origin — Datura alhoj Nees, a large, spreading annual 

 plant, 2 to 6 feet high, hearing handsome, tubular, white flowers 5 to 6 

 inches long. The capsules are pendulous, of depressed globular form, 

 rather broader than high, covered with shar^D tubercles or thick short 

 spines. They do not open by regular valves as in D. Stramo7iium, \mi 

 split in different directions and break up into irregular fragments. 



D. alha appears to be scarcely distinct from D. fastuosti L. 



Both are common in India, and are grown in gardens in the soutli of 

 Europe.^ 



History — The mediaeval Arabian physicians were familiar with 

 Datura alha, which is well described by Ibn Bay tar ^ under precisely 

 ' the same Arabic name (Jovz-wasal) that it bears at the present flay; 

 they were also fully aware of its poisonous properties. 



Garcia de Orta' (15G3) observed the plant in India, and has narrator! 

 that its flowers or seeds are put into food to intoxicate persons it wn=f 

 designed to rob. It was also described by Christoval Acosta, who in his 

 book on Indian drugs* mentions two other varieties, one of them with 

 yellow flowers, the seeds of either being very poisonous, and often 

 adnnnistered with criminal intent, as well as for the cure of disease. 

 Graham' says of the plant that it possesses very strong narcotic 

 properties, and has on several occasion been fatally used by Bomba}; 

 thieves, who have administered it in order to deprive their victims of 



the power of resistance. 



The seeds and fresh leaves have a place in the 

 India, 18G8. ^ 



Descript 



>/ 



from those 



ription— The seeds of D. alia are very different in appearance 

 ie of D. Stramonium, being of a light yellowish-brown, rather 



larger size, irregular in shape and somewhat shrivelled. Their form has 

 been likened to the human ear; they are in fact obscurely triangular or 

 flattened-pearshaped, the rounded end being thickened into a sinuous, 



convoluted, triple ridge, while the centre of the seed is somewhat de- 

 pressed. The hilum runs from the pointed end nearly half-way up the 

 length of the seed. The testa is marked with minute rugosities, hut is 

 not so distinctly pitted as in the seed of the D. Stramonium; it is akj) 

 more developed, exhibiting in section large intercellular spaces to which 

 are clue its spongy texture. The seeds of the two species agree in internal 

 structure as well as in taste; but those of D. alha do not give a fluorescent 



tinctnrp ° 



. The leaves, which are only employed in a fresh state, are 6 

 inches m length, with long stalks, ovate, often unequal at the 



4 



6 to 10 



base, 



bv -Dr fe r ^- "^''^ '^"* *« "sfroin Madras 



S to.l. ^f:^^'% (Pyr.5n^es Orientales). 

 and produced the plant under three forms 



Wi"d^', A *™o ^- «^''" ^« figured ill 



vo&ittT-~i^- ^\^^*^ with "flowers, 

 violet without and nearly white within [D. 



fa.stvom).^X Plants with double corolla 

 of large size and of a yellow colour. 

 - Sontheimer's translation, i. ^«>J- „^ 

 3 Aromatitm Imtoria, 1574, lib. "• '^j'^'y^ 

 * Traclado de las Dro'jns. • • 

 Indins Orkntaks, Burgos, 15/8. »3- ^j_ 

 = Catalogue of Bombay Plants, IS^J- 



