408 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



the Bureau of Plant Industry. The plant is identical in all respects 

 with similar plants preAdously collected in various parts of Mexico 

 and the southwestern United States by the late Dr. Edward Palmer, 

 who called attention to the use of the plant at the present day by 

 several tribes of Indians as a ceremonial and narcotic. 



ORIGIN or THE NAME JIMSON, OR JAMESTOWN WEED. 



(Plate 10.) 



The narcotic properties of Datura stramoniwm were known to our 

 own southern Indians as well as to the Mexicans. ^ Hernandez calls 

 attention to the fact that its fruit causes insanity if eaten incau- 

 tiously. That this is true is shown by the following anecdote taken 

 from Robert Beverly's History and Present State of Virginia, in his 

 account " Of the Wild Fruits of the Country." It appears that the 

 soldiers sent to Jamestown to quell the uprising known as Bacon's 

 Eebellion (1676) gathered young plants of this species and cooked 

 it as a potherb. 



The James-Town Weed (which resembles the Thorny Apple of Peru, and I 

 take to be the Plant so call'd) is supposed to be one of the greatest Coolers in 

 the World. This being an early Plant, was gather'd very young for a boil'd 

 salad, by some of the Soldiers sent thither, to pacifie the Troubles of Bacon', 

 and some of them eat plentifully of it, the Effect of which was a very pleasant 

 Comedy ; for they turn'd natural Fools upon it for several Days : One would 

 blow up a Feather in the Air ; another woul'd dart Straws at it with much 

 Fury ; and another stark naked was sitting up in a Corner, like a Monkey, 

 grinning and making Mows at them ; a Fourth would fondly kiss, and paw his 

 Companions, and snear in their Faces, with a Countenance more antick, than 

 any in a Dutch Droll. In this frantick Condition they were confined, lest they 

 should in their Folly destroy themselves ; though It was observed, that all their 

 Actions were full of Innocence and good Nature. Indeed, they were not very 

 cleanly ; for they woiUd have wallow'd in their own Excrements, if they had 

 not been prevented. A Thovisand such simple Tricks they play'd, and after 

 Eleven Days, return'd themselves again, not remembring any thing that had 

 pass'd. ^ 



THE HUACA-CACHU OF PERU. 



(Plate 11.) 



The narcotic effects of Datura sanguinea, known in Peru as Hua- 

 cacachu, or Yerba de Huaca, have been described by several travelers. 

 Tschudi, who found it growing on the declivities of the Andes above 

 the village of Matucanas, repeats the statement of Humboldt that 

 from its fruit the Indians prepare a very powerful intoxicant which 

 they call tonga, on which account the Spaniards named the plant 

 borrachero. Plis account is as follows: 



The Indians believe that by drinking the tonga they are brought into com- 

 munication with the spirits of their forefathers. I once had an opportunity 



1 Its active principle, daturine, has been identified with the alkaloid atropine, for which 

 it is a perfect substitute. In 1916 one firm in the United States used one and a half 

 million of pounds of this plant for the manufacture of atropine. 



2 [Beverly, Robert.] History and Present State of Virginia. Bk. 2, p. 24. 1705. 



