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XXXVI. Some Account of the Curata, a Grass of the Tribe of Bambuseæ, 
` of the Culm of which the Indians of Gatiana prepare their Sarbacans or 
Blowpipes. By Roserr H. Scuompurex, Esq. Communicated by the 
Secretary. 
Read December 17th, 1839. 
“ WHAT is the monocotyledonous plant that furnishes these admirable 
reeds?” is the question asked by Baron Humboldt, after giving a description 
of the species of reed, of which the Indian Sarbacans or blowpipes are made. 
* Did we see, in fact,” he continues, “ the internodes of a grass of the tribe of 
 Nastoidæ ? or may this reed be a Cyperaceous plant, destitute of knots ?—I 
cannot solve this question !” 
Nearly forty years have passed since this great traveller visited Esmeralda, 
and observed one of the four canoes which had taken the Indians to the 
gathering of the Juvias (the fruits of Bertholletia excelsa) filled in great part 
with this remarkable reed; and the interval has elapsed without botanists 
receiving any further information on this interesting subject. No wonder, 
therefore, that next to the plant which furnishes the active principle of the 
famous Urari or Wurali poison, the discovery of the reed by means of which: 
the Indian is enabled to send his poisoned arrow with so much precision into 
his intended victim, should have been a point of the greatest interest to me. 
During the first of the expeditions which were undertaken in the interior 
of Guiana, I was fortunate enough to discover at the Cannucu mountains 
the plant of the bark of which the Indians make their Urari poison, and 
established without doubt that it is a species of Strychnos, which I named 
Strychnos toxifera. But in answer to all my questions to the Indians as 
to the locality from whence they procured the reeds-that play such an im- 
portant part in the construction of the blowpipe, they merely pointed to the 
west, and gave me to understand that it was far away. The value which the 
T of Guiana set upon these reeds, and the uncertainty from whence 
2. 
