The Datura stramonium. The uneducated call it Jimson Weed.
1687. Lighting on a Herb called Iames town-weed, they gathered it.—J. Clayton in ‘Phil. Trans.,’ xli. 160. (N.E.D.)
1705. The James-Town Weed … is supposed to be one of the greatest Coolers in the World…. [Some Soldiers, eating it in a Salad,] turn’d natural Fools upon it for several Days.—Beverley, ‘Virginia,’ ii. 24.
1718. Mint, Jamestown weed, so called from Virginia, the seed it bears is very like that of an Onion; it is excellent for curing burns, but taken inwardly brings on a sort of drunken madness.—J. Lawson, ‘The History of Carolina,’ p. 78 (Bartlett).
1813. A preparation of the Jamestown weed, Datura-Stramonium, invented by the French in the time of Robespierre. Every man of firmness carried it constantly in his pocket, to anticipate the Guillotine.—Tho. Jefferson to Dr. Samuel Brown, July 14, from Monticello.
1829. A rank crop of Jamestown weed grew up within, so as to be seen through the windows of the first story.—John P. Kennedy, ‘Swallow Barn,’ p. 159 (N.Y., 1851).
1837. [The boy died] from eating the seeds of the Jamestown weed.—Balt. Comml. Transcript, Sept. 9, p. 2/1.
1846. “You are green in bar hunting,” said he to me, in a commiserating tone, and with a toss of the head that would have done honour to Mr. Brummel in his glory; “green as jinson weed—but don’t get short-winded ’bout it.”—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 135.
1855. Manned by a primitive race of people, who live ‘principally upon what they can get,’ and crabs, shrimps, and a species of gympson (Jamestown) weed.—Knick. Mag., xlvi. 600 (Dec.).
1876. She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and “jimpson” weeds that constituted the garden.—Mark Twain, ‘Tom Sawyer,’ i. p. 18 (Bartlett).
