548 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1D20. 



size than the other forms ; also that, while the upper leaves have un- 

 equal margins on opposite sides of the midrib, the larger leaves near 

 the base of the plant are frequently symmetrical or nearly so and 

 broadest at the base, with the salient marginal angles more or less 

 hastate. He describes the corolla as five-toothed, white, and more 

 than a palm wide. The flowers can not endure the heat of the mid- 

 day sun, but they open on calm cloudy days and especially toward 

 evening, remaining expanded throughout the night and exhaling a 

 sweet but faint lilylike fragrance. He likens the fruit to small apples 

 as large as a hulled walnut, but rounder, subtended by a flat shieldlike 

 pericarp which continues green for a long time, and bearing upon the 

 surface short thick points, which do not prick but make it difficult to 

 seize the fruit. This finally breaks up into four parts, exposing a white 

 medulla thickly covered with dark yellow, flat, rugose seeds, shaped 

 almost like the human ear, and having a sweetish but insipid taste. 

 The black dutra has similar flowers and fruit but dark brown or 

 blackish stems and more prominently angled, deeper green leaves 

 which appear to be sprinkled with gray flour, while the red dutra, the 

 type of the variety fastuosa, has double reddish-colored flowers and 

 lead-colored foliage. He does not hesitate to identify his plant with 

 the classic nux-metella, or methel, and he states that Anguillara be- 

 lieved it to be identical with the narcotic hippomanes of Theocritus. 

 The seeds of this species continue to be used widely in India. 

 Capt. Thomas Hardwicke while traveling in 1796 between Hurdwar 

 and Sirinagur, British India, found it common in every part of the 

 mountains where there were villages. The natives were well 

 acquainted with its narcotic properties, and used an infusion of its 

 seeds to increase the intoxicating powers of their spirituous liquors. 17 

 Dr. John Fleming, in his Catalogue of Indian Medicinal Plants 

 and Drugs, states that Datura stramonium is not found in Hindu- 

 stan, but that D. metel grows wild in every part of the country. 

 "The soporiferous and intoxicating qualities of the seeds are well 

 known to the inhabitants, and it appears from the records of the 

 native courts of justice that these seeds are still employed for the 

 same licentious and wicked purposes as they were formerly, in the 

 time of Acosta and Rumphius." 18 Many other references to such 

 uses are given by writers on India. Mr. Baden Powell observed a 

 series of samples in an exhibit at Lahore, illustrating the criminal 

 methods of using the drug in Upper India. It included raw seeds, 

 roasted seeds, essence of the seeds, and flour, sugar, and tobacco 

 which had been drugged with them. He states that this drug is used 

 by the thugs to stupefy their victims, and that it is derived from both 

 the white and purple datura. For use as a poison the seeds are 



"Asiatick Researches, vol. 6, p. 351, 1799. 

 M Asiatick Researches, vol. 11, p. 165, 1810. 



