NO. 21.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1204, 29 March 1895, Page 7

NO. 21.

THORN • APPLE, MAD - APPLE, DEVIL'S TRUMPET, .DEVIL'S APPLE, STRAMONIUM, AND IN SOME PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA AS JIMSON WEED, A CORRUPTION OF JAMESTOWN WEED. (Datura stramonium?) By t. W- Kirk, F.L S., &c„ London. A native of Europe, but now found

in most countries, except in the Arctic and colder temperate regions. An erect, succulent, weedy, muchbranched annual, growing in this Colony from lffc to 3ffc high. Stem green, thick, nearly solid, and round. Leaves stalked, rather limp, dull green, paler beneath, margin undulating deeply and irregularly cut, forming unequal teeth. Flowers white and funnelshaped, about 3in long, with five lobes. Fruit egg-shaped, about 2in long, covered with sharp stout spines, and contains numerous seeds.

In pastures where milch-cows are kept it is a dangerous weed, being very |

Fig. Ito 3. Maggot in various stages of development. Fig. 4. Chrysalis. Fig. 5. Perfect fly. Fig! 6. Section of cell of warble in hide (after Miss Ormerod). Fig. 7. Piece of tanned leather, showing damage done by warbles (from nature).

Fig. 1. Portion of branch, showing leaves, bud, and flower. Fig. 2. Eipe fruit, opened; some of the seeds have escaped, others may be seen in place (reduced). Portions of plate published by F, Turner, F.1&.H.5., in AgriQuh Hnl Gazette (New South Wales).

poisonous, and should therefore be eradicated ; although it is unlikely any but very quiet animals will eat it, save in times of scarcity. Mr P. R. Gordon, Chief Inspector of Stock, Queensland, about five years ago wrote to the Sydney Mail as follows : " Quantities of this plant grow in the neighbourhood of Toowoomba, and there have been many deaths in cattle from eating it. These deaths have not been mere cases of surmise. When the Board of Inquiry into ' Diseases of Live stock and Plants ' (of which I was ex officio secretary) was in I existence in this colony, the stomachs of ssveral cattle that had died in paddocks close to Toowoomba were forI warded to the board and analysed by

the late Karl T. Staiger, then Government Analyst; and in each instance the analysis showed death to have been occasioned by the animals having eaten the thorn-apple plant. It may be remarked that in each instance the poisoning was confined to quiet milking cattle, and it will be found as a rule that mortality from poisonous plants is confined to quiet milkers, or their progeny. These pet animals will nibble at and eat plants that ordinary bush cattle will not touch, unless forced to do so from sheer starvation."

Messrs Bentley and Tremen, in their valuable work called " Medical Plants,"

No. 192, say: "The activity of both the leaves and seeds of Datura stramonium is due to the highly poisonous alkaloid daturia, or daturine; and although we have no chemical proof'of the existence of this alkaloid in the other species of Datura, its presence in them can scarcely be doubted. Tke properties of Stramonium are regarded as anodyne and anti-spasmodic, and in overdoses it is a powerful poison. Ife has been found useful in neuralgia and rheumatic affections, in gastrodymia, and other painful diseases; and some have regarded it as a very valuable remedy in mania and epilepsy, but in - these diseases it not infrequently produces injurious effects. When used during paroxysms of spasmodic asthma it commonly gives relief and facilitates expectoration. In the latter disease, and also in dyspnoea, catarrhs, and in.—\ other cases, the leaves are generally smoked, like tobacco, or inhalations ' from their infusion in warm water resorted to. But its vise in these ways requires caution, as it has proved highly injurious, and in some instances fatal. In Cochin China a strong decoction of the leaves ia regarded as a very efficacious remedy for hydrophobia." This plant is usually found growing on good ground. Specimens received from Auckland, Picton, Wairarapa and Rangitikei. ,