a ed 
. 
The natives of the province of Huanuco, and the Indians of 
the mountains of the Peruvian Andes, make use of these barks for 
washing the head and for cleansing it from dirt and scurf, from 
a persuasion (particularly among the fair sex) that with this 
lotion the hair is nourished, and acquires greater softness, flexi- 
bility, and lustre. This fact is well founded in theory ; and ex- 
perience has fully demonstrated it by the long and beautiful 
hair generally observable in those persons who make frequent 
use of such lotions. 
For the same purpose of cleansing the hair, the inhabitants 
of the province of Tarma, as long ago as the year 1797, used the 
barks of the root of another species of the genus Mgnnina,. de- 
nominated in that country Pahuata-huinac and Chis 
that is, Growing by night, and also Hacchiquis ; all which is 
intimated in the first volume of our Systema Vegetabilium Flore 
Peruviane et Chilensis, page 172, at the® end of the specific de~ 
finition of the Monnina salicifolia.. . 
In the city of Huanuco the barks of the Yallhoy are frequent- 
ly used for cleansing and polishing wrought silver; and the sil- 
versmiths hold it in great estimation for that purpose. 
From the different sensations excited on the palate and tongue, . 
on chewing the barks of the Yallhoy, from their sharp, acrid, acid, 
bitter, mucilaginous, saponaceous, and somewhat nauseous taste, 
it is to be inferred that they contain many specific virtuts.° 
To be able to ascertain them, it is necessary to avail ourse We & 
of those excellent rules prescribed for us by the reformer of bo- 
tany in the immortal philosophy of this science, and, after well 
considering them, to proceed to a pharmaceutico-chemical ana-. 
lysis of its parts, in. order to deduce from the most obvious prin- 
ciples manifested by that analysis, the qualities and properties. 
of the plant, availing ourselves also of the analogy which it pos= 
sesses with other vegetables whose properties are known. 
2 M: 
