370 



KUBIACEiE. 



kio-er has also appeared under the title Uebersicht der Oinchon::: 

 von H. A. Weddell. Schaffhausen and Berlin, 1871, 8°. 43 pages, 

 with additions and indexes. 



RADIX IPECACUANHA. 



Ipecacuanha Root, Ipecacuan; F. Racine d' Ipecacuanha annelee; 



G. B reclnvurzel. 



Botanical Orgin — Cephcielis ^ Ipecacuanha A. Eichard — This is a 

 small shrub, 8 to 16 inches high, with an ascending, afterwards erept, 

 simple stem, and somewhat creeping root, growing socially in moist 

 and shady forests of South America, lying between 8° and 22° S. lat, 

 especially in the Brazilian provinces of Para, Maranhao, Pernam- 

 bnco, Bahia, Espiritu Santo, Minas, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao_ Paulo. 

 Within the last half century, it has been discovered in the vast interior 

 province of Matto Grosso, chiefly in that part of it which forms the 

 valley of the Rio Paraguay. From information given to Weddell, it 

 would seem probable that the plant extends beyond the frontiers ol 



Brazil to the Bolivian province of Chiquitos. 



The root which is brought into commerce is furnished chieHy by 

 the region lying between the towns of Guy aba, Villa Bella, Villa Maria, 

 and Diamantina in the province of Matto Grosso.; but to some extent 

 also by the woods in the neighbourhood of the German colony of rhua- 

 delphia on the Rio Todos os Santos, a tributary of the Mucury, nortn 

 of Rio dc Janeiro, , 



Prof. Balfour of Edinburgh, who has paid much attention to the 

 propagation of ipecacuanha, finds that the plant exists under t^no 

 varieties, of which he has published figures ; •* they may be thus ais- 



tinfjuished : 



a. Stem woody, leaves of firm texture, elliptic or oval, wavy at the 

 edges, with but few hairs on surface and margin. Long in cultivation . 

 origin unknown. 



h. Stem herbaceous, leaves less firm in texture, more hairy on 

 margin, not wavy. Grows in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro.^ 

 The plant cultivated in India seems disposed to run into sevei^. 

 varieties, but according to the experience gained in Edinhurgh, ti 



' ' ' pknts tends to disappear 



a 



. o - - — exper 



diversity of form apparent in vouno" 

 with age. ^ ° 



History 

 who, it would 



fi-iar. 



In an account of Brazil, written by a Poi^^S^^f ^^q to 

 ....V,, X,. wuuiu seem, had resided in that country from about k>/ 

 IGOO and published by Purcha.s,* mention is made of three remedie^ ^^^ 



the bloody flux, one of which is called Igpecaya or Plgaya; the ai o 

 here spoken of is probably that under notice. 



%riili^"'f'n"™'^^ ^y "^y ^"^^n'l Professor 

 m202 ^""""'' "''*• ^«*- xi- (1849) 



3 Trcuis. of Roy. Soc. "/ . ^JJ!' geSe)' 

 (1872) 781. plates 31-32.-rig. m Ben^ 

 and Trimen, Med. Plants.^ part 1& I* j^. 



^Purchas, Ills ^'g"'""? ' Sn by" 

 (lG25),-a treatise o frasil^^nt ^^,^ ^ 

 Portiigall which had long livett 

 1311. 



