Family

Nightshade.

Colour

White streaked with purple.

Odour

Unpleasant.

Range

General east of Iowa.

Time Of Bloom

May-September.

Flowers: large; growing on short flower-stalks in the forks of the branched stems. Calyx: five-toothed. Corolla: three inches long; tubular; funnel-form, the divisions sharply pointed. Stamens: five. Pistil: one. Leaves: large; flaccid; ovate; and deeply toothed. Stem: two to five feet high; stout; branching; smooth; greenish purple.

The odour of this plant has earned for it among the country people a name not at all euphonious and which is not repeated here out of respect to our fin de siecle civilisation.

D. Tatitla is the purplish-flowered species which is otherwise nearly identical with the above. Its range is rather more extended in the west and south. Both of the jimson weeds, as they are called, have been introduced into this country from South America and Europe and are among the number that we would prefer to have had remain where they rightfully belong. Outside of spreading themselves over unsightly piles of wayside garbage, their usefulness as a stimulant in medicine is not so great but that it could be readily dispensed with.

They are besides possessed of a narcotic poison, especially the purple variety, which is found in the seeds. Children have been badly poisoned by sucking the flowers.