326 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AND PRODUCTIOXS. 



CirsiCTlJi, Toiirnef. 



*C. AXNUUM, L. Cultivated. 



C. f/rossum, Willd. 

 C.J'rutescens, L. 

 C. laccatum, L. 

 C. minimum, MacClel. 



The above are a few of tlio varieties or races ■wliich have been educed by 

 cultivation from the wild plant. C. minimum is the dwarf variety, known as 'bird's 

 eve Chillies,' but the properties of all are alike, the fiery pungency of the plant 

 attaining its maximum development in a Trinidad variety, appropriately named 

 ' Deal's pepper.' Its uses as a condiment are too well known to requu-e recording, 

 and it is said to form one of the principal ingredients in Perry Davis's 'Pain-killer,' 

 a familiar panacea, wherever the American Baptist missionaries have effected a 

 lodgment. 



DATUJilJEJH. 



Capsule or herrij incomplefeh/ -l-ce/hd : primary septum hearing a placenla on eaeh 

 side, either on its centre, or near the parietal angle. 



SOLANDEA, jSV'S. 

 S. GRAXDIFLOEA, SwZ. (il.). 



Datura, Linnaus. 

 D. FASTUOSA, Wall. (:M.). 



D. MFTEL, L. (M.). 



I), alba, Eumph. 



Pa-daing-hpyu. The Thorn-apple. 



The thorn-apple is a common weed round villages in India and Burma, and its 

 seeds ai'e used as narcotics by ' Thugs' and other robbers, rai.xed with curry or sweet- 

 meats. The active principle is an alkali, Daturia, which is present in both the seeds 

 and leaves. Its use causes dilatation of the pupil and in poisonous quantities 

 delirium, coma and death. After even a dose which does not kill, the patient often 

 takes some days to recover his faculties. The leaves smoked in a pipe, or in the form 

 of a cigar, are a valuable remedy for asthma, but the drug should be discontinued if 

 it produces vertigo. 



NICOTIAXIE.^. 



Capsule '2-celled, septicidalhj 2-valeed. 



NicoTiANA, Tournef. 



*jSr. TABACUM, L. 



Tobacco is a plant of America, but now largely cultivated in Asia. An excellent 

 tobacco is grown in Upper Burma and the Shan states, but care and knowledge are 

 wanted in its growth aud manufacture to insure a first-class article, and this is not 

 likely to be, till the industry attracts European attention and capital. 



There arc few Orders more important to man than this, embracing as it does 

 the potato and tobacco, the food and solace of millions. Equally valuable to millions 

 of Asiatics is the capsicum, whose warm stimulating fruit either fresh or dried is 

 invaluable in the insipid dietary of those whose food is mainly rice. The species 

 of Solumim all contain a narcotic alkaloid, and are more or less poisonous when it 

 is present in considerable quantity, as in the ' deadly nightshade.' Tobacco owes its 

 peculiar soothing power to two powerfully poisonous principles, one an uncrystallizable 

 oil, Xicotine, the other a concrete volatile oil. The action of either of these substances 

 resembles that of Digitalis, producing a general lowering of the vital powers, paralysis 

 and death. The moderate use of tobacco, however, is thought by some authorities 

 to act as a preventive of malarious fever (Waring), and, as is the case with other 

 vegetable poisons, the system becomes habituated to its use, and the unpleasant 



