50 



On the Datura Tatula (Torr.) as a variety ofD. Stramonium (Linn.) 

 By Professor James Buckman, F.G.S., F.L.S., F.S.A., &c. 



Read at Bradford Abbas, July 19tli, 1865. 



Hating engaged in a series of experiments on these plants when 

 at Cirencester, which I have followed out in Dorsetshire, I have 

 thought that some few remarks upon the two forms, Datura 

 Stramonium and Datura Tatula, might be interesting to the 

 Cotteswold Club, and more especiallj as I have now such a fine 

 plantation of D. Tatula to illustrate the subject. Most of our 

 members wiU be acquainted with the white flowered D. Stramo- 

 nium, called American Thorn Apple. The peculiarities of the D. 

 Tatula consist in purple flowers, and indeed a more or less dark 

 purple pervades the whole of the plant, which is, too, sometimes 

 as much as three or four times the size of the D. Stramonium. 

 However, in the details of form I have failed to detect any 

 difference, a fact which at once induced me to suspect that the 

 plants in question were only varieties; and therefore I procured 

 some seeds in 1857, and commenced the experiments and obser- 

 vations about to be detailed. In the reports to the British 

 Association for 1857 will be found the following: — 



'^ A plot each of D. Stramonium and D. Tatula, was sown side 

 by side (at Cirencester,) the former from seed grown in the 

 district, the latter from seed kindly communicated by Mr. Savory, 

 of New Bond-street. Of the former not one seed came up, 

 whilst of the latter several plants are in great perfection. The 

 flowers of my specimens are but very shghtly tinctured with 

 purple." 



Then follows the remark: — 



''These plants are very abundant in the United States, the 

 tinctured variety being much more common towards the South 



