DATURAS — SAFFORD. 561 



stripe on each lobe, and the stamens with pale yellow filaments and 

 purplish anthers. The purple-petioled deep green leaves are leathery 

 and glossy, differing from those of the closely allied Solandra guttata 

 Don in being perfectly glabrous on both faces, instead of velvety. 



The Mexican Tecomaxochitl is described by Hernandez as having 

 leaves resembling those of a lemon, large flowers yellow on the out- 

 side, purple within, and white stamens. There are other species of 

 Tecomaxochitl, he adds, with flowers entirely yellow and with smaller 

 and more acuminate leaves. The flowers, which have the fragrance 

 of lilies, were held in high esteem by the Aztec chiefs and were planted 

 and cultivated with great care in their pleasure gardens. 32 Accord- 

 ing to Sesse and Mociiio the water contained in the unopened flower 

 buds was reputed by the Indians to be efficacious as a remedy for 

 certain affections of the eyes. 



NARCOTIC TREE DATURAS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



The tree daturas of South America, called Campanillas, or Flori- 

 pondios, by the Spanish- Americans, have been segregated by certain 

 botanists as a distinct genus, under the name Brugmansia 33 and 

 Pseudodatura. 34 Brugmansia Candida, the type of this group, is a 

 synon3 7 m not of Datura arborea Linnaeus (pis. 8 and 9), but of Da- 

 tura arborea Ruiz and Pavon (fig. 11), which is specifically distinct 

 from the former and which, according to the rules of priority must 

 take the name Datura candidal Among the travelers and explorers 

 who have called attention to the narcotic properties of these plants 

 are de la Condamine, Humboldt and Bonpland, and Tschudi. 



M. de la Condamine, while exploring the headwaters of the Rio 

 Maranon in 1743, observed the use of a floripondio as a narcotic by 

 the Omagua Indians inhabiting its banks. This plant he referred to 

 Datura arborea, a species based by Linnaeus on a plant first described 

 by Pere Feuillee. Very closely allied to the latter is Datura cornigera 

 Hooker, a species with the calyx terminating in a hornlike point. 

 Datura ccmdida has very much larger flowers, with the principal 

 nerves of the corolla terminating in long taillike appendages between 

 which the margin is entire or rounded, and not cordate or notched. 

 Its fruit, moreover, according to Ruiz and Pavon (see fig. 11), has 

 at its base the persistent husklike calyx, while in the true Datura 

 arborea the calyx falls off with the corolla and the fruit is round 

 and peachlike (pi. 9). In addition to the species of this group al- 



32 Hernandez, ed. Matr., vol. 1, pp. 286, 287, 1790. 



"Persoon, Syn., vol. 1, p. 216, 1805; Lagerheim, G., Monograpbie der ecuadorianischen 

 Arten der Gattung Brugmansia Pers. 1895. 



"Van Zijp, C, Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Ned. Indie., vol. 80, pp. 24-28, 1920. 



36 See Safford, W. E., A synopsis of the genus Datura, Journ. Wash. Acad. ScL, vol. 11, 

 p. 182, 1921. See also Journal of Heredity (Washington), vol. 12, 1921. 



42803°— 22 36 



