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DESCRIPTION : The thorn apple is a large and coarse annual from two 

 to five feet high, with pale-green smooth stems and darker green leaves. 

 The whole plant exhales a heavy nauseating narcotic odour. The leaves 

 are egg-shaped, coarsely wavy toothed or angled. The flowers are white, 

 two to four inches long, tubular, with fine teeth. The fruit or seed capsule 

 is globular, slightly longer than wide, covered with coarse prickles, breaking 

 open into four parts to show the numerous rather large seeds within. 

 The plant is in bloom from May to September. 



DISTRIBUTION: It has been introduced in Canada among garden 

 seeds and is now found scattered throughout on waste ground. 



POISONOUS PROPERTIES: It is a well-known narcotic poisonous plant. 

 All parts of the plant are exceedingly poisonous, especially the seeds. 

 Children are tempted to eat the fruit when playing where the plant is grow- 

 ing. Fatalities among children have occurred on several occasions in the 

 United States. 



The plant contains the three alkaloids, daturine, hyoscyamine, and 

 atropine, which are highly poisonous. The toxicity is not destroyed by 

 drying, and cattle poisoning has been recorded in the United States where 

 the leaves were mixed with the hay. As a rule animals avoid the plant 

 on account of its unpleasant odour and strong taste. 



SYMPTOMS: The general symptoms as given by Chesnut are, ''Head- 

 ache, vertigo, nausea, extreme thirst, dry, burning skin, and general nervous 

 confusion, with dilated pupils, loss of sight and of voluntary motion, and 

 sometimes mania, convulsions, and death." 



REMEDY AND MEANS OF CONTROL: The plants should be grubbed out 

 or pulled wherever they have escaped from cultivation. No seeds should 

 be allowed to mature, and all parts of the plant should be burned. 



OTHER SPECIES OF DATURA. 



The purple thorn-apple (Datura Tatula L.) is another introduced 

 weed of a similar nature found on waste ground in Ontario. It may 

 readily be distinguished by its purple stem and pale violet-purple flower. 

 This and D. Metel L. are also narcotic poisonous plants to be equally 

 avoided. 



