130 SOLANACE&. [DATURA. 



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



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

 Leaves large, entire sinuate or deeply toothed. Flowers 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- 

 lobed. Stamens attached near the base of the 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 spinons capsule, 4-valved or irregularly 

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

 embryo peripheric. Species about 35, 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. PL and Watt's Commercial Products of India. 



Capsule deeply 4-valved, erect; corolla 5-too the d. 

 ?-' ( 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. Metel. 



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 

 puberulous outside, corolla 5-toothed, white 

 or cream-coloured ; capsule spreading, 

 covered with sharp spine a . . . .5. alba. 



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

 Oomm. Prod. Ind. 488; Oollett Fl. Siml. 344. 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-laneeolata. Corolla 3-6 in. long, 

 white, 1-8 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. 



