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Datura (Arabic name). Syn. Brugmansia. Solanaceae. Thorn-apple. Several large plants cultivated for their huge trumpet-like flowers, which have an odor that is very pleasant to some persons.
Annual or perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees: lvs. large, entire or wavy-toothed: fls. large, solitary, erect or pendulous, mostly white, with more or less violet, rarely red or yellow; calyx 5-toqthed, sometimes breaking apart near the base or splitting lengthwise: corolla trumpet-shaped, with spreading 5-10-toothed limb; stamens 5, all perfect, slightly or not at all exserted, the filaments slender; style long, the stigma 2-lobed: fr. a large 2-celled caps., mostly prickly or spiny, usually dry and 4-valved at top but sometimes fleshy and bursting irregularly, with large seeds.— Some 15 species, mostly strong-smelling, in the warmer parts of the globe, some of them weeds.
A few daturas are grown as flower-garden subjects, or the shrubby kinds under glass or as tub specimens. The most popular kind in northern gardens is commonly called D. cornucopia (Fig. 1227), which is especially interesting when its flowers develop two or three well-defined trumpets, one within another. Sometimes, however, these double flowers are a confused mass of petalage. Double and triple forms are likely to occur in any of the species described below. The horn-of-plenty has been especially popular in America since about 1895, when it was found in South America by an orchid collector of the United States Nursery Company, and soon became widely distributed in "yellow, white, blue and deep carmine," all double forms. Daturas contain strong narcotics. Large doses are poisonous, small doses medicinal. Separate preparations of Stramonium seed and leaves are commonly sold in the drugstores. D. Stramonium (Fig. 1228) is the thorn-apple or Jamestown weed, the latter name being corrupted into jimson weed. Its foul, rank herbage and large spiny fruits are often seen in rubbish heaps. At the first successful settlement in America— Jamestown, Virginia, 1607—it is said that the men ate these thorn-apples with curious results. Capt. John Smith's account of their mad antics is very entertaining. It has been conjectured that this same plant was used by the priests at Delphi to produce oracular ravings. The seeds of D. sanguinea are said to have been used by Peruvian priests that were believed to have prophetic power.
Daturas are of easy culture. Some are treated as tender annuals. In the North the woody species can be grown outdoors in summer, and stored in cellars during the winter; in the South and in southern California they are almost everblooming. They are sometimes kept in cool conservatories the year round, in which case they should be planted in the border, as they rarely flower well in pots, their roots being large and spreading and requiring a constant supply of moisture. This method produces great quantities of bloom in spring. After flowering, the plants should be cut in to the main limbs.
Weedy annual species of Datura, intro. from the tropics or warm countries and run free in this country, are: D. Mitel, Linn. Pubescent: lvs. entire or slightly toothed: calyx tubular; corolla- limb) 10-lobed, 4 in. across: caps, nodding, prickly: 3-5 ft.: fls. white.—D. Stramonium, Linn. Fig. 1228. The common stramonium or jimson-weed: glabrous, green-stemmed: lvs. ovate, sinuate or angled or even cut-toothed: caps erect, with stout prickles: 24 ft.: fls. white. A very similar species but with a smooth and spineless caps, is D. inermis, Jacq.—D. Tatula, Linn. Differs from C. Stramonium in having purple sts., and violet-purple or lavender fls., and prickles of the caps, more nearly equal.
Other daturas more or less cult. abroad are: D. ceratocaula, Ort. Annual, 2 ft.: branches horn-shaped: lvs. broad-lanceolate: fls. very large, inside white or light violet, outside bluish, opening late in afternoon till middle of forenoon: fr. hanging, smooth. Trop. Amer. B.M. 3352.—D. coccinea, Hort.=D. De Noteri.— —D. colossea aurea, Hort. Garden hybrid, parentage not reported, with bright golden yellow fls.—D. De Noteri, Hort. Probably annual: 3 ft.: fls. fragrant, brilliant red, freely produced. S. Afr.— D. ferox. Linn. St. thick, glabrous, red at base but otherwise green- or white-punctate: lvs. rhombic-ovate, angled-toothed: calyx 5- angled and about 5-parted; corolla light blue, the limb angulate: fr. unequally spiny, with 4 large spines at top. S. Eu.—D. quercifolia. HBK. Annual, with green sts., the young growth somewhat pubescent: lvs. deeply sinuate-pinnatind.: fls. as in D. Tatula: caps, bearing large and unequal flattened prickles that are sometimes ½ in. long. Mex. Wilhelm Miller. L. H. B.
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