DATUKAS — SAFFOBD. 549 



parched and reduced to a fine powder which is easily mixed with 

 various articles of food, tobacco, etc., and that an essence is prepared 

 by distilling the seeds with water, 10 drops of which is sufficient to 

 render a man insensible for two days. 19 



Seeds of the typical forms used as drugs in India have recently 

 been secured for the writer by the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant 

 Introduction, United States Department of Agriculture. It is pro- 

 posed to grow them on the Arlington Farm, where the plant shown 

 on plate 2 was propagated. This species, like our own Datura stra- 

 monium, is a source of a valuable alkaloid identical in its effects 

 with atropine. 



AMERICAN DATURAS ALLIED TO THE METEL NUT. 



Datura innoxia Miller. Plate 3. Figure 4. 



Hernandez, in his account of the medical plants of New Spain, 

 describes a species of Datura of Eastern Mexico, having leaves 

 clothed with soft hairy pubescence, which can be no other than the 

 Datura innoxia of Miller. This plant was sometimes called Nacaz- 

 cul, from the resemblance of its flattened seeds to a miniature human 

 ear. It was also known as Toloatzin ("Inclined-head") on account 

 of its nodding capsules. The name toloatzin, modified to the form 

 " toloache," came to be applied to several distinct species of Datura. 

 It has been recently suggested that the name was primarily applied 

 to an arborescent Datura with pendent flowers, commonly known 

 as Floripondio; but this can not possibly be true, since all the 

 arborescent Daturas have unarmed fruits, and the fruits of the 

 Toloatzin are described as spiny. Moreover, the Floripondios are all 

 of South American origin, and seldom produce fruit in Mexico. 

 According to Hernandez's description, the plant called Nacazcul, or 

 Toloatzin, is a kind of Jamestown weed (tlapatl) growing in the 

 Province of Huexotzinco, now included in the State of Pueblo. It 

 has spreading branches, white woody roots, and ill-smelling softly 

 hairy leaves, which Hernandez compared to those of a grapevine in 

 form. Its fruit is globose and spiny, but at length it loses the spines. 

 The seeds are of a yellow color and resemble those of a radish (semen 

 est fulvum raphanino simile). This plant was common in waste 

 places and in the fields of Pahuatlan. It was highly esteemed by the 

 natives as a remedy for many complaints. The dry seeds, ground and 

 mixed with pitch, were used in setting broken bones and were won- 

 derfully efficient in curing sprains and dislocations. In using them 

 the Indians applied feathers and bound the broken member with 

 splints ; then they took the patient to the temexcalti, or vapor baths, 

 repeating the treatment as often as might be necessary. From the 



19 See Watt, Diet. Econom. Prod. India, vol. 2, p. 34, 1890. 



