DATURAS S AFFORD. 567 



SUMMARY. 



1. The family Solanaceae includes a number of narcotic plants, 

 some of them of Old "World origin, others belonging to the New 

 World, which have been used from remote antiquity as intoxicants 

 and medicines. 



2. These plants owe their virtues to certain midriatic alkaloids, 

 principally to atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopalamine, to which may 

 be added the more recently discovered solandrine, or nor-hyoscya- 

 mine. 



3. Perhaps the most remarkable feature in connection with these 

 plants is the independent discovery in remote parts of the world of 

 their remarkable hypnotic effects, which have been attributed to 

 magic, or to supernatural agencies, and have caused them to be 

 regarded with dread. 



4. Scarcely less remarkable is the independent utilization of dis- 

 tinct species in both the Old World and New in religious ceremonials, 

 especially in oracular divination, in the discovery of hidden objects, 

 and the foretelling of future events. 



5. The shortage of certain imported medicines during the recent 

 war has resulted in the cultivation of some of our own plants, espe- 

 cially the common Datura stramonium, as the source of a substitute 

 for atropine. Other solanaceous plants of both North and South 

 America might be similarly utilized. 



6. The use of endemic plants of America by the magicians and 

 medicine men of various native tribes illustrates, in the most striking 

 manner, the process of discovering the virtues and the utilization of 

 plants of primitive people, and throws valuable light upon the early 

 history of magic and medicine. 



7. After a careful study of all the species of Datura it does not seem 

 advisable to separate the floripondios, or tree-daturas of South 

 America, from the rest as a distinct genus. 



8. For a classification of the daturas and descriptions of new species 

 mentioned in the present paper the reader is referred to Synopsis of 

 the Genus Datura, in the Journal of the Washington Academy of 

 Sciences, vol. 11, pages 173-189, 1921. 



