18 Mr. Bashnan's Observations on the Roots 



cies of Paris ; Linnaeus at one time, with Morison and others, sup- 

 posed it was a Lonicera ; and others a species of Viola, The frau- 

 dulent intermixture of the roots of very different plants, all of which 

 were sent to Europe under the general name of ipecacuanha, still 

 further increased the uncertainty, and for many years the powdered 

 root was given without its being known from what plant it was ob- 

 tained. In 1764, Mutis, director of the botanical expedition at 

 Santa- Fe de Bogota, sent to Linnaeus a description and figure of 

 tlie plant yielding the ipecacuanha in New Grenada, (now the re- 

 public of Columbia,) and in 1781, the younger Linnaeus, in the sup- 

 plement to the Species Plant arutn of his father, published the de- 

 scription of the plant, under the name of Psycotria emetica, sup- 

 posing it to be the same described by Piso and MarcrafF. In 1802, 

 Brotero, profossor of botany at the university of Coimbra in Por- 

 tugal, described and figured in the 6th vol. of the Linnean Trans- 

 actions, the plant yielding the ipecacuanlia of the Brazils, and 

 which he termed the Callicocca ipecacuanha. This account was 

 found to agree with that given by Piso and MarcrafF ; but as the 

 genus Callicocca, made by Schreber, was identical with the Ce- 

 phaelis of Swartz, later botanists, as Willdenow and others, have 

 united the two under the later name. From the statements of 

 Mutis and Brotero, it appears that the term ipecacuanha is applied 

 to a different root in Columbia to what it is in Peru ; and in 1802, 

 Decandolle* stated that the name was applied to several roots, and 

 he particularly noticed the Viola parvijiora, a statement confirmed 

 by Humboldt and others. In 1801, Gomez stated that the white 

 ipecacuanha of Piso and Bergius, was the root of a species of Rich- 

 ardsmiia, to which he gave the specific name of Brasiliensis. M. 

 St. Hilairet has confirmed this statement, and added to the lists 

 of roots the Richardsonia rosea. I shall therefore endeavour to de- 

 scribe the various roots known in different parts of the world, under 

 the names of the true and false, or bastard, ipecacuanha ; and first 

 of the Cephaelis ipecacuanha, the true root. 



Botanical History. — Cephaelis ipecacuanha, X Sprengel, Syst. 

 Veget. G. 794. Sp. 6. WUld. Sp. Plant. I. 977— Callicocca ipe- 

 cacuanha, Brotero, Trans. Linn. Soc. Vol. VI. p. 135. — Poaya do 

 moto, Pharm. Lond. — Poaya da Botica, St. Hilaire. 



CI. V. Ord. 1. Nat. Or^. Ruhiacece, Juss. Aggregates Linn. 



Generic Characters of Willdenow.' — Flowers in an involucred 

 head. Corolla tubular. Stigma two parted. Berry two seeded. 

 Receptacle chaffy. 



Spec. Characters. — Stem ascending somewhat shrubby, sarmen- 

 tous. Leaves ovate, lanceolate, a little pubescent ; leaflets rather 

 heart-shaped. Corolla five-cleft, chaffy. Bracteas large. 



• Memoires de la Society Medicale d'Emulation, torn. i. 

 f Des plantes usuelles des Brasiliers. 



+ The genus Cephaiilis of Swartz is synonymous with the Tapogomea of Au- 

 blet, and the Callicocca of Schreber. 



