Smilacea.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 383 
obtained from the Spanish main. The medical virtues of this root are supposed to 
depend upon a peculiar principle, which possesses a little acridity and is called parigline, 
or sarsaparilline. Sarsaparilla has been reckoned useful as an alterative; it excites 
diaphoresis, and has been known to occasion nausea and vomiting; containing much 
fecula, it may be useful as a demulcent, while its slight bitterness may give it some 
tonic power. By some practitioners it is pronounced devoid of any useful properties. 
Dr. Hancock, however, states that most of the sarsaparilla of the shops is inert, while 
that which is good has a peculiar nauseous acrimony when chewed ; and that, in his 
opinion, only one species of Smilar yields genuine sarsaparilla, which grows on the 
elevated lands of the Rio Imiquer, at Unturana, and Caraburi, but that it is constantly 
adulterated with inferior sorts. Seeing that so many species of Smilax are employed 
as substitutes for sarsaparilla, it is remarkable that no attempts have been made in 
India, where so many species are indigenous, to effect the same object, and where the 
drug must arrive in a still less fresh state than it does in Europe. That the American 
species are not the only ones endowed with active properties, is proved by S. aspera, 
thought to be the Zusra£ rpayxse of the Greeks, being in the S. of Europe called Sarsa- 
parilla Italica ; and appearing from the experiments of M. Jaeger, as well as of M. 
Banor, to be possessed of all the properties of sarsaparilla. S. Macalucha is a Philip- 
pine island species, which is used medicinally, and S. glycyphylla a New Holland one, 
which is called sweet tea, and considered tonic and antiscorbutic. So the cele- 
brated China root (called chob-cheenee in India), the produce of Smilax China, is 
esteemed as a diaphoretic and tonic, though probably useful only as a demulcent. It 
is remarkable that two Indian species, S. glabra and S. danceefolia, having tuberous 
roots, like §. China, are called, in Silhet, hurina-shook-China and gootea-shook-China, 
while S. daurifolia is called koomari or koomari-sook-China. . ovalifolia is called kunda- 
gurvatiya by the Telingas. Ina late report, Mr. Gibson mentions having sent some of 
this plant to Bombay for experiment. It is probable that all the above species are used 
by the natives of India as medicinal substances, as is, I believe, S. Villandia, figured 
in Tab. 94. fig. 1, of the present work. . 
Though the substance called E. India sarsaparilla is no doubt the roots of Hemi- 
desmus indicus, as was proved in a paper read by the author before the Royal Asiatic 
Society, 9th June 1838, there is yet a substance in Indian bazars, called Ls! aoshba, 
or aoshbeh, usually translated sarsaparilla in dictionaries. In Persian works on Materia 
Medica, it is called aoshbeh mugrabee, and also yasmeen-burree-mugrabee. The speci- 
mens which 1 obtained, it is curious to observe, have a considerable resemblance to 
those of sarsaparilla, but the plant yielding it, probably a native of Africa, is as yet 
unknown. The Author is indebted to Professor Don for the ensuing specific characters, 
as well as for those of the following orders. 
Trillium 
