safford: narcotic snuff, cohoba 559 



verse cut across the bifurcation; this in all probability was in- 

 tended to be cut off, so that the ends might fit the nostrils. 



The Tiahuanaco specimen is described at length by Max Uhle, 

 who published a photographic illustration of it, 19 from which the 

 figure here shown was drawn. Uhle believed that this tube was 

 used for snuffing tobacco; but this I think doubtful. Humboldt, 

 as already quoted, says that Piptadenia was commonly called 

 "tree-tobacco," and the custom of snuffing its powdered seeds 

 was common among many tribes inhabiting the banks of the 

 tributaries of the great rivers of South America, which extended 

 to the boundaries of Peru and Bolivia; and we have the definite 

 statement that the snuff made from the seeds of P. Cebil was 

 quite similar to the vilca (or huillca) of the Peruvians. 



In the paper above cited, Uhle recognized that cohoba snuff 

 and tobacco had been confused bj r various authors, and even sug- 

 gests the possibility of the common origin of the names cohoba 

 and curupa, but he says nothing of the actual presence of Pipta- 

 denia peregrina, the true "tree-tobacco," in Hispaniola. It was 

 not until the writer consulted Urban's recent work on the flora 

 of the Antilles that he found mention not only of the tree itself 

 but of the ancient name by which it was known to the aborigines 

 of Hispaniola. 20 Urban, however, gives no hint of its former use 

 as a source of snuff, or of the narcotic properties of its seeds. 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF COHOBA 



Piptadenia peregrina (L.) Benth. Journ. Bot. Hook., 4: 340. 1842. 

 Mimosa peregrina L. Sp. PL, 1504. 1753. (Mimosa inermis, etc. 



Hort, Cliff. 209. 1737.) 

 Inga Niopo Willd. Sp. PL, 4: 1027. 1806. 

 Acacia peregrina Willd. Sp. PL, 4: 1073. 1806. 

 Acacia microphijlla Willd. Sp. PL, 4: 1073. 1806. 

 Mimosa Niopo Poir. in Lam. Encycl. SuppL, 1: 48. 1810. 

 Acacia Niopo Humb. & BonpL, Relation Hist., 2: 620-623. 1819; 



H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Sp., 6: 282. 1823; Kunth, Synop. PL, 



4: 20. 1825. 

 Acacia angustiloba DC. Prodr., 2: 470. 1825. 

 Mimosa (?) acacioides Benth. Journ. Bot. Hook., 2: 132. 1840. 

 Piptadenia Niopo Spruce, Notes of a Botanist, 2: 426. 1908. 



19 See, Bull. Mus. Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, No. 4. 

 1898. 



20 Urban, I. Symbolae Antillanae, 4: 269. 1905. 



