130 SOLANACEM. [Datuea. 



5. DATURA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iv, 242. 



Coarse rank shrub-like herbs, glabrous or minutely pubescent. 

 Leaves large, entire sinnate or deeply toothed. Floioers large, 

 solitary, pedicelled, purple or white. Calyx long, tubular, herbaceous, 

 5-toothed, circumscissile above the base in fruit. Corolla long, 

 funnel-shaped, mouth wide ; limb plicate, entire or shortly 5- or 10- 

 !<>bed. Stamens attached near the base of ths corolla-tube, filaments 

 filiform ; anthers included, linear, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 

 2 or spuriously 4-celled, style filiform, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit an 

 ellipsoid 4-celled usually spinous capsule, 4-valved or irregularly 

 bursting near the apex. Seeds very many, compressed, rugose, 

 embryo peripheric. —Species about 15, widely distributed in the 

 temperate and tropical regions of the world. — For historical and 

 economic information regarding the different species see Bentley 

 and Trimen Med. PI. and Watt's Commercial Products of India. 



Capsule deeply 4-valved, erect; corolla 5-toothed. 

 •-■ (§ Stramonium) :— ■ 



Flowers white 1. D. Stramonium . 



Flowers purple or blue . . . . . 2. D. Tatula. 



Capsule opening irregularly near the apex, reflexed 

 or spreading ( Wutra) : — 



Whole plant densely clothed with greyish- 

 green tomentum, corolla white, 10-toothed ; 

 capsule globose, reflexed, covered with 

 long slender spines . . . . . 3. D. Met el. 



Plant glabrous or minutely pubescent, corolla 

 5-toothed, usually purplish outside; capsule 

 reflexed, covered with blunt tubercles . 4. D. fastuosa. 



Plant glabrous or nearly so, calyx and corolla 

 puberuloua outside, corolla 5-toothed, white 

 or cream-coloured ; capsule spreading, 

 covered with sharp spines . . . .5. alba. 



1. D. Stramonium, Linn. 8p. PI. 179; F. B. I. iv, 242 ; Watt, E.D.; 

 Comm. Prod. Ind. 488 ; Collett Fl. Siml. 844.— Thorn-Apple. 



A coarse annual. 2-4 ft. high, glabrous or farinose-puberulous. Leaves 

 stalked, about 7 in. long, ovate, deeply toothed or sinuate, pale-green. 

 Calyx 1-lf in. ; lobes i in long, ovate-lanceolate. Corolla 3-G in. long, 

 white, 1-3 in. in diam. ; lobes 5, cuspidate. Capsule erect, ovoid, 

 deeply 4-valved, covered with rigid long and short prickles surrounded 

 below by the enlarged reflexed base of the calyx. 



