26 



MENISPERMACE.^. 



an ashy hue. 



either from the young shoots or from the woody stems. The fruits 



mmu 



are f of an inch long, oval, black and much resembling grapes in form 



and arrangement/ 



^ The plant groAvs in Peru and Brazil, — in the latter country in the 

 neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, where it occurs in some abundauce 

 on the range of hills separating the Copacabana from the basin of the 

 Rio de Janeiro. It is also found about San Sebastian further south. 



History 



missionaries 



17th century became acquainted with a root known to the natives as 

 Ahutua or Butua, which was regarded as possessing great virtues. As 

 the plant affording it was a tall climbing shrub with large, simple, 

 long-stalked leaves, and bo)-e bunches of oval berries resembling grapes, 



name 



The root was brought to Lisbon where its reputed mediciual powers 



attracted the notice of many persons, and 



among o 



thers of Michel 



Amelot, ambassador of Louis XIY., who took back some of it when he 

 returned to Paris in 1C88. Specimens of the drug also reached the 

 botanist Tournefort, and one presented by him to Pomet was figured 

 and described by the latter in 1694.^ The drug was again brought to 

 Paris by Louis-Raulin Rouille, the successor to Amelot at Lisbon, 

 together with a memoir detailing its numerous virtues. . 



Specimens obtained in Brazil by a naval officer named De la Mare in 

 the early part of the last century, were laid before the French Academy, 

 which body requested a report upon them from Geoffroy, professor ol 

 medicine and pharmacy in the College of France, who was already 

 somewhat acquainted with the new medicine. He reported many 

 favourable trials in cases of inflammations of the bladder and suppres- 

 sion of urine.^ The drug was a favourite remedy of Helvetius/ physi- 

 cian to Louis Xiy. and Louis XV,, who administered it for years with 

 great success. 



Both Geoifroy and Helvetius were in frequent correspondence with 

 Sloane* who received from the former as well as from other sources 

 specimens of Pareira Brava, which are still in the British Museum and 

 have enabled us fully to identify the drug as the root of Ckondodendron 

 tomentosum. 



Several other plants of the order Menisperr)iacecB have stems or roots 

 employed in South America in the same manner as Gltondodendron^ 

 Pomet had heard of two varieties of Pareira Brava, and two were 

 known to Geoffroy,^ Lochner of Nxirnberg who published a treatise 

 on Pareira Brava in 1719^ brought forward a plant of Eastern Africa 

 tigured in 1675 by Zanoni,^ and supposed to be the mother-plant of the 



» See Pharm, Journ. Aug. 2, 1873. 83; 

 Yearbook, 1873. 28 ; Am. Journ. of 

 Pharm, Oct. 1, 1873. fig. 3; Hanhury 

 xScience Papers, 382. 



^ Hist, des Drog. Paris, 1694. part i, 

 livre 2. cap. 14. 



3 Hist, de rAcad, roy, des Sciences^ 

 anne^ 1710. 56. 



^ Train des maladJes les phis friqucnics 

 et des remedes spdciftquta pour [e4 gu4rir, 

 Paris, 1703. 98. 



^ In the volumes of Sloane MSS. No- 

 4045 and 3322 contained in the Bntisn 

 Museum, are a great many letters to Sloan 

 from Etienne-Franyois Geoffroy and froiij 

 his younger brother Claude-Joseph, dating 

 1699 to 1744. 



6 Tract de Mat Med. ii, (1741) -17^^^; 



'^ Schediasma de Parreira Brava^ li^'^' 



(ed. 2. auctior.) 

 ^ Istoria Botanica^ 1C75. 59. fig. 22. 



