NIGHTSHADE TEIBE 269 



white and erect, expanding from July to October. They are succeeded by 

 the large prickly seed-vessel, which is curiously formed, being 2-celled, with 

 each cell again divided by a partition ; so that the lower part seems 4-celled. 

 Though naturalized in Britain, the plant is a native of America, and is in 

 Virginia called Fire-weed, because it springs up readily in spots cleared by 

 fire. It is also called St. James'-weed, from the abundance of its growth near 

 Jamestown ; and the new settlers in that land having eaten it, experienced 

 such extraordinary effects, that one of its common names indicates it as a 

 plant peculiarly belonging to the Prince of Darkness, the originator of all 

 evil. According to the accounts given by the old historians of Virginia, the 

 new-comers finding this plant in spring, gathered some of the young and 

 tender shoots, which they boiled for their meat ; and some of the soldiers sent 

 to quell the disturbances there, ate plentifully of the vegetable. It seems to 

 have produced a most vivacious sort of intoxication, in which the men who 

 ate it committed the most wild extravagances ; and, according to the old 

 historians, the influence of the plant remained eleven days, while upon their 

 recovery, the victims of this delirium had forgotten all that had occurred. 

 The love of the marvellous, so prevalent in those days, doubtless led to an 

 exaggerated statement of these eft'ects ; but the plant is now well known to 

 be a most powerful narcotic, which, previously to causing stupor, induces a 

 state of wild delirium, in which the person who takes it laughs and talks 

 incessantly. The hill tribes of India use the plant as a narcotic, and in some 

 of the mountain villages the seeds are commonly infused in spirituous liquors, 

 for the purpose of increasing their intoxicating properties. The narcotic and 

 poisonous principles of the seeds have long been known and used for 

 criminal purposes in some parts of the Continent, and they are said to be 

 thus used in poisoning by the natives of the Indian Archipelago. In this 

 country these seeds are rarely employed, and we should see nothing of their 

 effects, did it not sometimes happen that children taste them accidentally, 

 when spectral illusions more or less wild are induced. The peculiar 

 principle of the Thorn-apple is called by chemists daturin. It exists more or 

 less in all the species, and its general action on the system is much like that 

 of Henbane ; when taken internally it strongly dilates the pupil of the eye. 



Professor Johnston, in his remarks on the " Narcotics we indulge in," 

 thus refers to this plant : "When the Thorn-apple is smoked, as it is some- 

 times in this country, by persons afflicted with certain forms of spasmodic 

 asthma, an empyreumatic oil is produced, similar to that which is formed 

 during the burning of tobacco in the pipe of the smoker. Like the empy- 

 reumatic oil of tobacco, also, it is very poisonous, so that the effect produced 

 by the smoke of the Thorn-apple upon the system is made up of the joint 

 influence of this poisonous oil and that of the poisonous daturin, which may 

 come away with the smoke. Hence the smoking of Thorn-apple, as experi- 

 ence has proved, is by no means unattended with danger." 



The Red Thorn-apple {D. sanguinea), which grows on the slopes of the 

 valleys of the Andes, is called by the Indians Verba de huacca, or Borachero. 

 The Indians prepare a narcotic drink from this plant, and Von Tschudi 

 describes its effects, which are doubtless very like those which would follow 

 a similar use of the common species. Shortly after taking the beverage, 



