462 SOLANACEvE. 



SEMEN ET FOLIA DATURA A1.BM. 



Seeds and Leaves of the Indian or White-flowered Datura. 



Botanical Origin — Datura alha Nees, a large, spreading annual 

 plant, 2 to G feet high, bearing handsome, tubular, white flowers 5 to G 

 inches long. The capsules are pendulous, of depressed globular form, 

 rather broader than high, covered with sharp tubercles or thick short 

 spines. They do not open by regular valves as in D. Stramonium, but 

 split in difterent directions and break up into irregular fragments. 



D. alha appears to be scarcely distinct from D. fastuosa L. 

 Both are common in India, and are grown in gardens in the south of 

 Europe.^ 



History — The mediaeval Arabian physicians were familiar with 

 Datura alba, which is well described by Ibn Baytar^ under precisely 

 the same Arabic name (Jouz-masal) that it bears at the present day; 

 they were also fully aware of its poisonous properties. 



Garcia de Orta^ (15G3) observed the plant in India, and has narrated 

 that its flowers or seeds are put into food to intoxicate persons it was 

 designed to rob. It was also described by Christoval Acosta, who in his 

 book on Indian drugs* mentions two other varieties, one of them with 

 yellow flowers, the seeds of either being very poisonous, and often 

 administered with criminal intent, as well as for the cure of disease. 

 Graham* says of the plant that it possesses very strong narcotic 

 properties, and has on several occasions been fatally used by Bombay 

 thieves, who have administered it in order to deprive their victims of 

 the power of resistance. 



The seeds and fresh leaves have a place in the Pharmacopoeia of 

 India, 18G8. 



Description — The seeds of D. alba are very different in appearance 

 from those of D. Stramonium, being of a light yellowish-brown, rather 

 larger size, irregular in shape and somewhat shrivelled. Their form has 

 been likened to the human ear; they are in fact obscurely ti-iangular or 

 flattened-pearshaped, the rounded end being thickened into a sinuous, 

 convoluted, triple ridge, while the centre of the seed is somewhat de- 

 pressed. The hilum runs from the pointed end nearly half-way up the 

 length of the seed. The testa is marked with minute rugosities, but is 

 not so distinctly pitted as in the seed of the D. Stramonium; it is also 

 more developed, exhibiting in section large intercellular spaces to which 

 are due its spongy texture. The seeds of the two species agree in internal 

 structure as well as in taste; but those of D. alba do not give a fluorescent 

 tincture. 



The leaves, which are only employed in a fresh state, are G to 10 

 inches in length, with long stalks, ovate, often unequal at the base, 



1 Seeds of D. alba sent to us from Madras fastuosa). — 3. Plants with double corollas 



by Dr. Bidie, were sown by our friend M. of large size and of a yellow colour. 



Naudin of CoUioure (Pyr^n^es Orientales), - South eimer's translation, i. 269. 



and produced the plant under three forms, ^ Aromatum historia, 1574, lib. 2. c. 24. 



viz. : — 1. The tnie D. alba as figured in * Tractado de las Drorjas . . . de las 



Wight's f cones. — 2. Plants with flowers, Iiidias Orientales, Burgos, 1578. 85. 



violet without and nearly white within (D. ^ Catalogue of Bombay Plants, 1839. 141. 



