704 



SMILACE^. 



1. Smilax officincdis H.B.K. — This plant was obtained in the year 

 1805, by Humboldt, at Bajorque, a village since swept away by the 

 stream, about in 7° N. lat., on the Magdalena in New Granada. The 

 specimens, comprising only a few imperfect leaves, which we have 

 examined in the National Herbarium of Paris, are the materials upon 

 which Kunth founded the species. Humboldt^ states, that quantities 

 of the root are shipped by way of Mompox and Cartagena to Jamaica 

 and Cadiz. 



In 1853 this plant was again gathered at Bajorque by the late De 



Warszewicz, who sent to one of us (H.) leaves and stems, accompanied 



by the root, which latter agrees with the Jamaica Savsapavilla of 



commerce. But at Bajorque the root is no longer collected for 

 exportation. 



The same botanical collector, at the request of one of us, obtained in 

 the year 1851, on the volcano and Cordillera of Chiriqui in Costa Kica, 

 fruits, leaves, stems, and roots, of the plant there collected by the Indiaos 

 as Sarsa peluda or Sarson. These specimens agree, so far as comparison 

 is possible, with those of the Bajorque plant, while the root is undistin- 

 guishable from the Jamaica sarsaparilla of the shops. Other specimens 

 of the same plant, gathered by the same collector in 1853, were for- 

 warded to England with a living root, which latter however could not 

 be made to grow. 



Finally, in 1869, Mr. E. B. White obligingly communicated to us 

 leaves and roots of a sarsaparilla collected at Patia in New Granada, 

 which apparently belongs to the same species. 



In the island of Jamaica, there has been cultivated for many years, 

 and of late with a view to medicinal use, a sarsaparilla plant which 

 appears to be Smilax officinalis. The specimens transmitted to us' 

 include neither flowers nor fruits; but the leaves and square stem 

 accord exactly with those of the plant collected at Bajorque. The root 

 IS of a light cinnamon-brown, and far more amylaceous than the so- 

 called Jamaica SaTsaparilla of commerce (see p. 710). 



2. Smilax medica Schl. et Cham.— This species,^ which was 

 discovered in Mexico by Schiede in 1820, is without doubt the source 

 of the sarsaparilla shipped from Vera Cruz. According to our observa- 

 ^^^^%^*. has a flexuose (or zigzag) stem, and much smaller foliage than 

 'S. officinalis; the leaves, though very variable, often assume an 

 auriculate form, with broad, obtuse, basal lobes. 



It grows on the eastern slopes of the Mexican Andes, and is the 

 only species of that region of which the roots are collected. These, 

 according to Schiede, are dug up all the year round, dried in the sun 

 and made into bundles. 



» Kunth, Synopsis Plant, i. (1822) 278.— 

 iimilax officinalis is a large, strong climber, 

 attaining a height of 40 to 50 feet, with a 

 perfectly square stem armed with prickles 

 at the angles. The leaves are often a foot 

 m length, of variable fonn,being triangular, 

 ovate-oUong, or oblong-lanceolate, either 

 gradually narrowing towards the apex or 

 rounded and apiculate, and at the base 

 either attenuated into the petiole, or trun- 

 cate, or cordate. They are usually 5-nerved, 

 the 3 mner nerves being prominent and 



enclosing an elliptic area. The flowers are 

 in stalked umbels. A fine specimen of the 

 plant is most luxuriantly growing since 

 many years in the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 but has not flowered. 



2 We owe them to the kindness of H. J. 

 Kemble, Esq., who procured them, with 

 specimens of the root, from the Government 

 garden at Castleton. 



3 Figured in Nees von Esenbeck's PlaiiUe 



Medicinales, suppl. tab. 7- 



