346 THORN-APPLE. 



are alternate, large, spreading, unequal, petiolate, somewhat 

 succulent, ovate-triangular, acute, glabrous, angled and sinuate 

 at the margin, dark lurid green above, paler beneath, and marked 

 with strong branching veins. The flowers are large, solitary 

 and axillary, supported on short erect peduncles. The calyx 

 is long, tubular, pale green, acutely pentangular, five-toothed 

 at the summit, with ovate, acute, erect, keeled segments. The 

 corolla is white, funnel-shaped ; the tube cylindrical, greenish 

 white, longer than the calyx, gradually expanding into a pen- 

 tagonal, five-cleft, plaited limb ; the segments roundish, shallow, 

 tapering into a subulate apex. The five stamens have linear- 

 subulate, erect filaments, shorter than the corolla, inserted in 

 the tube, and are tipped with erect, ovate-linear, brownish, 

 compressed anthers, which open longitudinally. The germen 

 is superior, ovate-pyramidal, obtuse, hispid, supporting a white 

 cylindrical style as long as the stamens, crowned with a clavate, 

 obtuse, bilobed stigma. The fruit is an oval, erect capsule, 

 armed with numerous, nearly equal, strong, pungent spines, 

 and subtended at the base by the remains of the calyx ; it has 

 a fleshy exterior or bark, and is internally divided at the lower 

 part into four cells, but two only of the dissepiments reach the 

 top, opening by four valves, and containing many reniform, 

 compressed, blackish, punctured seeds, which are attached to 

 thick, salient, dotted placenta. Plate 43, fig. 4 ; (a) corolla, 

 opened to shew the stamens ; (b) pistil ; (c) horizontal section 

 of the fruit ; (d) seed magnified. 



Thorn-apple is a native of America *, and has from thence 

 been carried to Europe, where it is naturalized in many places. 

 The seeds were brought to this country from Constantinople 

 by Lord Edward Zouch, and given to Gerard, who raised plants 

 from them, about the year 1590. It is only found in the vi- 

 cinity of towns on dunghills and waste ground, being the out- 

 cast of gardens. It flowers in July and August. 



The generic name is derived from the Arabic Datora, or 

 Tdtorah; while Stramonium is a corruption of o-rpyxvo/xcrnxov, 



* Bigelow, (Amer. Med. Bot., vol. 1. p. 20,) however, does not consider 

 it a native of the United States. He says, there are two varieties common 

 with them ; — the one, corresponding with the English plant ; the other, 

 distinguished by a dark reddish stem, dotted with green and purplish flowers 

 striped with deep purple inside. This he considers the D. latula of Linnaeus. 



