238 Sola7tacecS. [Datura. 



A weed in cultivated ground ; common, but very often cultivated. FI. 

 all the year ; pale green. 



Also in North-West India, the Mediterranean region and temperate 

 South Africa. 



The roots are a favourite medicine, especially among the Tamils. 



There is neither specimen nor figure of this in Herb. Hermann, though 

 included in Fl. Zeyl. 



Capsicum minimum, Roxb., is commonly met with in shady places in 

 the low country. It produces the small chillies known as Nayi-miris by 

 the Sinhalese, and ' Bird Pepper' by the English. Its native county is 

 doubtful. 



Nicandrn p/iysaloides, Gaertn., a pretty blue-flowered Peruvian herb, 

 is occasionally found as a roadside weed in the montane zone, having 

 escaped from cultivation. 



4. DATT7RA, L. 



Annual herb, 1. alt, fl. large, solitary; cal. tubular, segm. 5; 

 cor. tubular-funnel-shapecl, limb recurved, lobes 5, scarcely 

 marked, plicate and contorted in bud; stam. 5, fil. adnate to 

 cor.-tube from base half way up, anth. linear, dehiscing verti- 

 cally, ov. 2-celled, style very long, stigma 2-lobed ; fruit a 

 lleshy prickly capsule, 2- or 4-celled, irregularly dehiscent ; 

 seeds numerous, compressed, embryo curved round central 

 endosperm. — Sp. 10; 3 in Fl. B. Ind. 



D. fastuosa, L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 932 (1759). Attana, S. 

 Venumattai, T. 



Herm. Mus. 41, 69. Burm. Thes. 221. Fl. Zeyl. n. 86. D. Meiel, 

 L. Sp. PI. 179. Moon Cat. 15. Thw. Enum. 217. C. P. 1897. 

 Fl. B. Ind. iv. 242. Wight, Ic. t. 1396. 



Stem 1-2 ft. high, stout, somewhat zigzag, rather succulent, 

 polished and shining but slightly rough with very minute 

 scattered hairs, divaricately branched, marked with scars of 

 fallen 1. ; 1. 3-6 in., triangular-ovate, rounded and generally 

 very unequal-sided at base, acute, entire, or more often with a 

 few large coarse acute teeth or lobes, apparently glabrous but 

 with a very minute mealy pubescence on both sides, dull 

 glaucous green above, paler beneath, veins pellucid, petiole 

 1-2 in.; fl. very large, on very short stout ped. from the node 

 but not axillary, erect ; cal. 3 in., very minutely adpressed- 

 pubescent, scgm. \ in., triangular, acuminate, acute; cor.-tube 

 over 7 in., gradually widening upwards, limb 4 in. diam., lobes 

 with the plait or midrib terminating in a short, linear, acute 

 tail, pubescent on back; stam. about as long as cor.-tube, 

 anth. nearly | in. ; ov. papillose, style over 6 in. ; capsule 

 nodding on curved ped., i \ in., supported at base on reflexed 



