Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 301 



PURPLE THORN APPLE (Datura Tatula) is a 



large, ill-scented, rank-growing weed with a stout, 

 smooth stem from 1 to 5 feet high. The long-stem- 

 med leaves have very irregular, coarsely toothed out- 

 lines. The lavender-colored, trumpet-shaped flowers 

 are about four inches long. The flaring corolla has 

 five broad sharply pointed lobes and is seated in a 

 light green, five-parted calyx about half its length. 

 Usually the color of the corolla is more intense on 

 the lobes and often shades to white towards the base 

 of the tube. After flowering, a large green, fruit-cap- 

 sule about two inches long appears; it is ovoid in 

 shape and armed with stout prickles. The entire 

 plant has poisonous juices, because of which and the 

 unpleasant odor, farmers usually try to suppress it 

 on their premises. It grows in waste ground, 

 especially about barnyards, from Me. to Minn, and 

 southwards. 



THORN APPLE; JIMSON WEED (Datura Stra- 

 monium) also comes from across the water; it is 

 very similar to the preceding, grows in the same 

 places and in the same range. The flowers are white 

 and the leaves are lighter green; the stem is also 

 somewhat stouter. 



All the preceding members of the Nightshade Fam- 

 ily have more or less poisonous (Dualities, but there 

 are others that are of inestimable value to mankind. 

 The Potato, one of the most valuable and widely cul- 

 tivated vegetables throughout the civilized world, be- 

 longs to the genus Solanum. It is specifically term- 

 ed Solanum tuberosum. The common Tomato be- 

 longs to another genus of this same family (Lycoper- 

 sicon). The Egg Plant is Solanum Melongena. Not 

 only do these valuable food products come from mem- 

 bers of this family, but one of the oldest and most 

 widely cultivated of our garden flowers does too, the 

 Petunia. 



