. Hancock says that the Sarsa of the Rio Negro, which comes by way of Angostura 
_ or Para is the best, and this is certainly not Willdenow’s S. siphilitica ; the true 
species has no axillary spines. ; 
lt appears that of six or eight 
species of Smilax growing in 
the woods of. Guayana, but 
one is found to manifest to 
the taste any of the sensible 
properties of the genuine me- 
dicinal Sarsa ; the root being 
insipid and inert; that one 
Dr. Hancock describes thus:— 
“ The stem is round, armed 
with short curved spines. The 
leaves are oblong, pointed, 
distant, smooth, and glossy. 
The root is a tuber with 
numerous divergent fibres of 
2 or 3 lines in thickness and 
several feet in length.” 
CLASS VI. aymnocens (V. K., p. 221.) 
| Patural Orders of Gymmnagens. 
Cyrads (Cycadeacee.) Stem simple. 
Conifers (Pinacew.) Stem branched. Females in cones. 
Carats (Taxacece.) Stem branched. Females solitary. 
* Natural Order, Cycats ; Cycadeacewe (V. K., p. 223.) 
Prevailing Quality. Bitter, nutritious. 
Zamia. Linneeus. 
| Males and Females both in cones, composed of sroudly souls enna 
, , cated hexagonal apex. Seeds two to each scale. 
'. Z, tenuis Willdenow. yi 
veaflets linear, tapering to the base, obtuse, with 1 or 2 teeth on the edge, 
E=: below the end ; petiole triquetrous, smooth. ; 
Quality and Uses, ‘The dwarf fleshy trank yields with the following an abundance of 
___ Pure starch, used as a fine arrow-root in the Bahamas. . : 
4, Surfuracea Aiton. 
Leaflets lanceolate, acute, pointless, serrated from the middle up to veel: a 
__ point ; petiole terete, prickly. A es 
Habitat. The West Indies, 
ality and Uses, The same as in the last. 
Fig 101.—Stem and leaf of Smilax aspera; 102. Leaf of Smilax China. 
