Datura stramonium
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| Thorn apple / Jimson weed | ||||||||||||||
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| Datura stramonium |
Datura stramonium is the name of a poisonous weed, sometimes used as a hallucinogen. Commonly called Thorn Apple. Datura stramonium is classified as a deleriant, or an anticholinergic. It grows over almost all of the Continental United States.
In the United States it is called Jimson Weed, stinkweed (because of its stinky smell), locoweed (because of its pharmacological effects), or more rarely Jimpson Weed; it got this name from the town of Jamestown, Virginia, where British soldiers were secretly drugged with it (in their salad), while attempting to stop the Bacon's Rebellion. They spent several days chasing feathers, making monkey faces, generally acting like lunatics, and indeed failed at their mission.
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The History and Present State of Virginia, 1705 |
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...some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebillion of Bacon (1676); and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows [grimaces] at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves- though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after 11 days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed. |