546 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



with the Dutra alba of Rumphius ; and fails to quote Liunaeus's cita- 

 tion of the very same illustration (see fig. 3) upon which Nees based 

 his species. This Asiatic species (fig. 1), the distribution of which he 

 gives as " in arenosis ubique per omnem Indian Orientalem," he 

 makes identical with the American D. innoxia Miller (fig. 4) 

 already referred to, a species which Miller definitely states grows 

 naturally at La Vera Cruz, Mexico, whence he received the seeds. 

 Fortunately the plant continues to grow in its type locality, where 

 abundant material can be secured for study. 



Under D. fastuosa Dunal does not indicate that it was in the second 

 edition of Species Plantarum that it first appeared as a distinct 

 species, but cites Species Plantarum without giving the edition of 

 the work or the date of its publication; while under D. metel he 

 fails to mention its appearance in the first edition, but cites only 

 the second edition, so that the inference would be that this was the 

 place of its first publication and that, instead of preceding, it fol- 

 lowed the description of D. fastuosa. After this arbitrary treat- 

 ment of D. metel L., one is curious to know what plant Dunal refers 

 to this species, which he could not entirely ignore. In the De Can- 

 dolle Herbarium he came upon an American plant, collected by 

 Berlandier at Victoria in the State of Tamaulipas, Mexico, which 

 appeared to correspond with the description of D. metel, and which 

 indeed resembles that species very closely. This he settled upon as 

 D. metel L. and identified with it a second Mexican plant collected 

 by Schiecle and Deppe on the sandy beach of Vera Cruz, and also an 

 imperfect specimen of a Datura collected by Humboldt and Bon- 

 plend on the beach of Guayaquil, Ecuador. As for Asiatic exam- 

 ples of D. metel, definitely declared by Linnaeus to be the source 

 of the East Indian aphrodisiac drug called dhatura, he cites not a 

 single specimen, but he does give as a synonym Rumphius's Dutra 

 nigra, which is nothing else than the kala\-dhaturd, or black datura 

 of India, not specifically distinct from the safed-dkaturd, or white 

 datura. 15 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE ASIATIC DATURA METEL. 



Datura metel L. is a spreading plant with dichotomous branches, 

 usually herbaceous but sometimes becoming shrublike with the base 

 of the stem and the lower branches woody, and the root, which pene- 

 trates deeply into the soil, bearing several large branches of similar 

 size. The entire plant is apparently glabrous and has the appear- 

 ance of being covered with fine grayish dust or flour. The terete 

 glossy stems and older branches are marked with the scars of fallen 

 leaves. The leaves are triangular-ovate in general outline and un- 



16 See Watt's Diet. Econ. Prod. India, vol. 3, pp. 32-36, 1890, under Datura fastuosa, 

 the black Datura, and D. fastuosa var. alba, the white Datura. 



