228 LEGUMINOSJ^. 



Negro between Manaos and Barcellos (Spruce). According to Bentham 

 it seems to be the same species as the G. bijuga of Ha3aie/ 



3. G. conacea Mart. {G. cordifolia Hayne), a large tree found in the 

 caatingas or dry woods of tlie Brazilian provinces of Bahia and 

 Piauhy. 



4. a LangsdorjUi Desf ^ (G. nitida Hayne, G. Mloivii Hayne, ?_C. 

 Jiissieui Hayne), a polymorphous species, varying in the form and size 

 of leaflets, and also in dimensions, being either a shrub, a small bushy 

 tree, or a large tree of 60 feet high. Bentham admits, besides the type, 



three varieties : — j3. glabra (G. glabra Vogel), y. grandifolia, S. laxa 

 (G. laxa Hayne). The tree grows on dry campos, caatingas and other 

 places in the provinces of S. Paulo, Minas Geraes, Goyaz, Mato Grosso, 

 Bahia and Ceara ; it is therefore distributed over a vast area. Accord- 

 ing to Gardner,^ the Brazilian traveller, it yields an abundance of 

 balsam. 



In addition to these species, must be mentioned a tree described by 

 Hayne and commonly cited under the name of Gopaifera niultijug'^:^^ 

 a special source of the drug shipped from Para." As its name implies, 

 it is remarkable for the number of leaflets (6 to 10 pairs) on each leal 

 But it is only known from some leaves in the herbarium of ^1'''™*^^ 

 which Bentham, who has examined them, informs us are unlike those 

 of any Gopaifera known to him, though certainly the leaflets aredottea 

 with oil- vessels as in some species. In the absence of flowers am 

 fruits, there is no sufficient evidence to prove that it belongs even to 

 the genus Gopaifera. It is not mentioned by Martins in his Systm ■ 

 Materia} Medico; Brasiliensis (1843) as a source of the drug. 



History— Among the early notices of Brazil is a treatise b) -^ 

 Portuguese friar who had resided in that country from 1570 ^^ ^^ ^ 

 The manuscript found its way to England, was translated, and 

 published by Purchas ' in 1625. Its author notices many of *e °aw ^ 

 productions of the country, and among others Gupayba whicti ne^^^^ 

 scribes as a large tree from whose trunk, when wounded by a 

 incision, there flows in abundance a clear oil much esteemed 



deep 



medicine. 



Balsam. Copm. yvce is already enumerated in the 6th edition o 



Pharraacopoea of Amsterdam, A.D. 1636." . ^ P.^ra, 



Father Cristoval d'Acuha,' who ascended the Amazon Irom^ ' ^^ 

 arriving at Quito in 1638, mentions that the country aff"ords vei} _ ° 

 Cassia fistula, excellent sarsaparilla, and the oils of Andirova |^ r_^^ 

 gmanensis Aublet, Meliacem), and Gopaiha, as good as baisa 



curing wounds. 



iiig wuuuus. ^ %ssaii 



Piso and Marcgraf,' who in 1636 accompanied the Count oi - 



1 Hayne (1827) enumerated and figure<l •* " Alle Arteii geben "^^^^^ die in i^ 



lo species, some of them founded on very Balsam, und den lueisten gie" ^gpaifera 

 imperfect materials. Bentham in the F/ora Provinz Para vorkoium«»"' . ^|i826) 



l>nd. 



iv. 



nrasUiana of Martins and Endlicher (fasc. mnltijiiija."—n&yn0, Linncea. 



oOi,-(/ttmj„o«e, ii. 1870. pp. 230-244) ad- 429. „., . ,„., 



nuts only 11, one of which is doubtful as = Pihp-imes and Fil'jronage, 



to the genus. (1625)1308. .ns-fiilOSl. .,, 



^Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. ^ Pharm. Journ. viA\^'y/ .^,1 J!>o<'f 



Ilanfs, part_32 (1878); Langsdorffii, not 7 ^'urvo Descuhrlmentodel^^^ 



Lansdorffi, ,8 to be written; see Pharm. las Amazonas, Madrid, lC4y p^^^ J,, 



Jouni.ix. (1879) 773. a jjist, Nat. Bra^du", K'-^^' 



^lh. attached to specimens in the Kew Marc^-raf, 130. 

 lierbanum. 



