550 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



leaves of the plant an anodyne was made and administered as a 

 remedy for the pains of the whole body and also for the " French 

 sickness." A poultice, for external application, was also made of 

 them, with the addition of yellow capsicum ; but warning was given 

 that an excessive amount be not administered lest the patient be 

 seized with madness and become the victim of " various and vain 

 imaginations." 



In Antonio Recchi's edition of Hernandez (1651) a note is ap- 

 pended to the original description stating that Nacazcul is a species of 

 tlapatl, or Datura, which itself is allied to Hyoscyamus. The capsule 

 of this plant is apparently four-celled, but when it matures it is found 

 to be really two-celled, each cell containing many seed embedded in a 

 spongy substance as in Hyoscyamus. 



It is this plant that Dunal in De Candolle's Prodromus called Da- 

 tura met e^ in spite of the fact that its stem, according to his own de- 

 scription, is densely pu- 

 bescent or hairy ( u caule 

 * * * denso pubes- 

 cente subvittoso"), its 

 leaves on both sides 

 densely pubescent, and 

 its calyx sparsely so; 

 features which separate 

 it at once from the true 

 Asiatic Datura met el 

 L., the dark-colored 

 form of which, called 

 Dutra nigra by Rum- 

 phius, Dunal errone- 

 ously cites as a syno- 

 nym of the American 

 species, while calling Rumphius's white-flowered Dutra by Nees's 

 name, Datura alba, instead of by its earlier and perfectly valid 

 name, Datura metel, established by Linnaeus in the first edition of his 

 Species Plantarum. In figure 5 the fruits of the two species are shown. 



Fig. 5. — Fruits of the Asiatic Datura metel L. and the 

 American D. innoxia Miller. 



OLOLIUHQUI, THE MAGIC PLANT OF THE AZTECS. 



Datura meteloides Dunal. Plate 4. 



The identity of this plant was for a long time doubtful, owing to 

 the fact that its Aztec name was also applied to certain species of 

 Convolvulaceae, or morning-glories. It was even described and fig- 

 ured as an Ipomoea by Hernandez. It is not surprising that it should 

 have been so confused ; for its trumpet-shaped flower, like that of the 



