Datura.} SOLANE^. 189 



with an inflexed margin. Stamens 5, alternate with the seg- 

 ments. Style 1. Stigma 2-lobed ; the lobes toothed. Glands 

 5, hypogynous, alternate with the stamens. Capsule 1-celled, 

 2-valved, many-seeded, (in the floating species indehiscent;) 

 the valves bearing the seeds in their axis. Leaves simple. 

 R. Br. Named in compliment to M. de Villars, author of 

 Flore du Dauphine. Pentandria. Monogynia. 



1. V. nymphceoides, Vent. Nymphcea like Villarsia. Leaves 

 heart-shaped, wavy at the edges, floating ; corolla fringed. 

 J8r. Fl. 1. p. 92. Hook, in FL Lond. N. S. t. l6$.Menyanthes 

 nymphceoides, Linn. E. Bot. t. 217. 



Naturalized in the Laggan a little above the Belfast Botanic Garden, 

 and near Lurgan. Fl. July, Aug. 2. A beautiful plant, and difficult 

 to be eradicated. Flowers large, yellow, curiously plaited. 



ORD. 52. SOLANE^E. Juss. Nightshade Family. 



Calyx 5-parted, seldom 4-parted, persistent, inferior. Corolla 

 monopetalous, hypogynous ; the limb 5-cleft, seldom 4-cleft, 

 regular, or somewhat unequal, deciduous ; the aestivation, in 

 the genuine genera of the order, plaited; in the spurious ge- 

 nera, imbricated. Stamens inserted upon the corolla, as many 

 as the segments of the limb, with which they are alternate ; 

 one sometimes being abortive. Pericarpium with 2 or 4 cells, 

 either a capsule with a double dissepiment parallel with the 

 valves, or a berry, with the placentae adhering to the dissepi- 

 ment. Seeds numerous, sessile. Embryo more or less curved, 

 often out of the centre, lying in fleshy albumen ; radicle next 

 the hilum. Herbaceous plants or shrubs. Leaves alternate) 

 undivided, or lobed ; the floral ones sometimes double, and placed 

 near each other. Inflorescence variable, often out of the axillce; 

 the pedicels without bractece. 



The plants of this order are eminently narcotic and exciting, 

 many of them dangerous poisons ; which qualities, however, 

 vary in degree in different individuals : thus, what exists in the 

 Potatoe is dissipated by heat, and the tubers are rendered quite 

 wholesome. 



1. DATURA. Linn. Thorn-apple. 



Calyx tubular, ventricose, with 5 angles, 5-toothed, diciduous, 

 leaving behind a broad orbicular base. Corolla funnel- 

 shaped ; the tube long ; the limb with 5 angles, 5 plaits, and 

 5 points. Stamens 5. Stigma of 2 plates. Capsule echinate 

 or smooth, 2-celled ; the cells divided occasionally by spu- 

 rious dissepiments. Name from its Arabic appellation Ta- 

 torah, (Forskal). In some parts of the East Indies too, it is 

 called Daturo. Pentandria. Monogynia. 



