26 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XtV. 



4. Tfff (Pita) — Yellow-flowered variety, single or double-flowered, 

 or both. Both these varieties are found in India. I had them once 

 in my garden in Thana. The single-flowered yellow varieties as 

 named by European and American botanists and horticulturists are as 

 follows : — 



D. humilis (pale yellow) ; D. cLIorantha and D, lutea (yellow). 



5. srffrT (Lohita) — Red-coloured variety known in Bengal, accord- 

 ing to Norman Chevers as Wi^ (Lai) datura, i.e., either of the colour 

 of iron-rust, or that of blood. It may also mean *' of the colour of 

 copper." I have not seen such a variety on this side of India. But 

 Firminger of Calcutta has mentioned a double-flowered and a single- 

 flowered variety also of the red or scarlet-flowered Datura named D. 

 sanguinea (see p. 531, Manual of Gardening, 4th Ed., Calcutta, 1890). 

 Firminger says that the flowers of this variety are of a deep red colour. 

 The plant ''thrives wellin Ootacamund," he adds. Nay, he says, 

 this, that he obtained from Ootacamund plants of this deep-red- coloured 

 variety of Datura for both the Calcutta Botanical Government Gardens 

 and for his own private garden. But, says he, the plants soon perished 

 seemingly unsuited to the climate of Calcutta. Note that the Calcutta 

 Botanical Government Gardens, which I visited not long ago, are on 

 alluvial soil on the banks of the Hooghly River in low-land regions ; 

 whereas the plants bearing blood-red flowers were taken by Firminger 

 for growth in Calcutta from the high-land plateau of Ootacamund, 

 which is 6,000ft. above sea-level. I do not know whether this red- 

 flowered variety exists in the beautiful gardens of Bangalore. Dr. 

 Cameron's elaborate catalogue of the plants growing or nursed in those 

 gardens is just now not with me, or else T might have been able to 

 say something more with regard to the prevalence of the red-flowered 

 variety in Southern India. Practically the red-flowered variety is 

 extinct in Western India. If it could not live in the lowlands of 

 Bengal, it cannot possibly live, or if at any time it lived in the low- 

 lands of the Konkan, it could not survive. In this connection I must 

 add that in Roxburgh's Fl. Indica (op. cit, p. 188), D. rubra (RumpJi) 

 is mentioned as a synonym of D. fastuosa (Linn). I gather from 

 Hooker's Index Kewensis (Fasc. I, p. 720) that in America, among 

 the Columbian plants, there is the single-flowered D. coccinea and 

 the single-flowered D. sanguinea of Peru. Then again, among the 



