4SS8 ' lAnnaan Society. 



of Sarsaparilla, Dr. Seemann proceeds to endeavour to elucidate the 

 facts connected with this perplexing subject. He refers first to 

 specimens collected by Dr. Warszewics, during his last visit to the 

 Volcano of Chiriqui in Veraguas, and transmitted by him to Mr. 

 Daniel Hanbury, and which Dr. Seemann pronounced to belong to 

 the Smilax officinalis of Humboldt and Bonpland ; a view which was 

 confirmed by a tracing made in Paris by Mr. Hanbury, from the 

 original imperfect specimens of that plant, and subsequently by 

 specimens collected by Dr. Warszewics at Eajorque in New Granada, 

 the locality where Humboldt and Bonpland obtained their Smilax 

 officinalis, and which are completely identical both with the plant of 

 the two distinguished travellers above named and with the specimens 

 collected by Dr. Warszewics at Chiriqui. The author then extended 

 his inquiry to other so-called species supposed to be allied to Smilax 

 officinalis, and states that having examined the specimens of Smilax 

 papyracea of Poiret, in the possession of Mr. Bentley, on which that 

 gentleman had published an able article in the Pharmaceutical 

 Journal for April 1853, he became convinced of the identity of that 

 plant also with Smilax officinalis. He next refers to Smilax medica 

 of Schlechtendal and Chamisso, well described and tolerably figured 

 by Nees von Esenbeck, which he believes to be also identical with 

 the plants previously examined ; the supposed diiFerences having 

 originated in the extreme variableness in this genus of the roots, 

 stems, branches and leaves, from which the principal characters of 

 the three supposed species were derived. 



The following is the description given by Dr. Seemann of the plant 

 which unites under the name of Smilax officinalis the synonyms of 

 Sm. papyracea and Sm. medica. It grows in the lower coast region 

 as well as on the mountains at an elevation of 5000 feet above the 

 sea, and is confined (as far as at present known) to the continent of 

 America, where it is found between 20"^ N. and 6° S. latitude, 

 and 110° and 40° W. longitude. Jamaica, from whence so large 

 a quantity is annually obtained, has been well ascertained not to 

 produce any itself, the article known as '* Jamaica Sarsaparilla " 

 being imported into that island from the Spanish Main ; nor is it 

 authentically proved to occur in any of the other islands of the 

 West Indies. The rhizoma is cylindrical, and the roots {Sarsaparilla 

 of Commerce), abounding more or less in starch, according to age and 

 locality, are as many as 10 feet in length, and generally furnished with 

 branched rootlets (beards). The plant itself is glabrous in every 

 part, and averages 50 feet in length. The stem is quadrangular, 

 furrowed or striated, and on the edges furnished with fiat prickles, 

 which are occasionally curved upwards. The branches are either 

 quadrangular or multiangular, and either with or without prickles. 

 The petiole, sheathing at the base, is furnished with two spirally- 

 twisted tendrils, which are often 10 inches long, and either furnished 

 with prickles or destitute of them. The leaves are extremely vari- 

 able ; at times they are broadly cordate, almost trilobed, gradually 

 tapering to an acumen ; at others they are ovate-oblong, and even 

 lanceolate, and rounded at the apex, but always mucronate ; they 

 are generally 5 -nerved, the two outermost nerves being mostly 



