DATURA JIMS0 N-W^:D 



Pistil. — Ovary two-celled; style slender, protruding from 

 the anther-cone; stigma small. 



Fruit. — Oval or globose berry, size of a pea, red, 

 shining. 



Among the thick foliage of Wild Grape and Virginia 

 Creeper that billows over the fences and drifts along 

 the roadside of highway and byway in early August, 

 one often sees the clusters of bright purple flowers 

 of the Nightshade as well as the shining scarlet berries. 

 This plant dwells of choice where the road dips to the 

 moist land, it loves damp, shady places, streams and 

 ditches. 



The Nightshade is better than its reputation. Its 

 individual flowers, each a yellow cone of anthers on 

 a violet star, hanging in spreading and nodding clus- 

 ters, are attractive and beautiful. The blossom is of the 

 Solanum type, a more or less sinister form. The family 

 bears in its bosom many of the deadliest plants of the 

 world. At the same time it includes many of our 

 most useful ones — the Potato, the Eggplant, the To- 

 mato, the Pepper, to name a few of those well known. 



The plant has a peculiar juice which is at first sweet- 

 ish to the taste, afterward becoming bitter. 



DATURA JIMSON-WEED 



Datura stramdnium 



Datura, altered from the Arabic name Tatorah. 



Annual. Naturalized from Asia. A well known, ill- 

 scented weed, in waste grounds, especially of cities, bear- 

 ing large, showy, white, bell-like flowers in the forks of 

 the branching stem, which are followed by large prickly 

 seed-vessels. 



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