CISSAMPELOS PAREIRA. 15 
~CISSAMPELOS PAREIRA. 
LINNAEUS. 
VELVET LEAF. 
Paremra Brava. 
Sex. Syst.—Dicecia, Monadelphia. . 
Gen. Cuar.—Diecious. Male: sepals four, in a double series. Peta/s four, united into a cup-shaped corolla, with 
an entire margin. Stamens united into slender columns, dilated at the apex, bearing two two-celled anthers, opening 
horizontally ; cellsplaced end to end, and forming a four-lobed, four-celled annulus round the top of the column. 
Female: calyz of one lateral sepal. Corolla of one petal in front of the sepal. Ovary solitary. Stigmas three. Drupe 
obliquely reniform, but compressed, wrinkled round its margin. Seed solitary, uncinate ; embryo long, terete, enclosed 
ina fleshy albumen. (Wight and Arnott, in Pereira’s Mat. Med.) ; ; 
Srecir. Cuar.—T wining, filiform, branched, terete, spirally striate, villous. Leaves alternate, petiolate, suborbi- 
culate; varying from obtusely-ovate to reniform, subcordate, rounded, or emarginate at the apex, mucronate ; when 
young, pubescent above, and albido-villous beneath; when old, glabrous above, and pubescent beneath; nerved, reti- 
culate, venose; petioles shorter than the leaf, terete, subtomentose. Mak : sepals four, obovate, spathulate, obtuse, 
concave; externally hairy. Nectary concave, orbiculate, entire. Filament one, in the centre of the nectary ; crest 
very short ; anthers five, united in a capitate body, excavated in the centre, opening externally along the margin by 
four horizontal slits. Female: racemes at the ends of the branches, or axillary, longer than the leaves; dracteas leafy 
gradually diminishing in size to the end of the raceme, shortly petiolate, suborbiculate, aristate, mucronate, pubescent, 
with about five minute shortly-pedicelled flowers within each. Sepal solitary, unilateral, spathulate, hirsute. Petal 
solitary, placed before, and but half the length of the sepal; truncated, hypogynous. Ovary ovate, villous; stigmata 
three. Berry globose, slightly compressed, of an orange-red colour, hispidulous. (Macfadyen, Flora of Jamaica ) 
: The root, which is the part used in medicine, is frequently of large size. It occurs in commerce in pieces vary- 
ing from a few inches in length to a foot or more, of various thickness, tortuous, more or less cylindrical, of a int: 
brown colour, furrowed longitudinally. The surface of a transverse section is of a yellowish-gray colour ‘priwenitin 
annular rings, traversed by radiating lines. It has no odour, and the taste is sweet, somewhat aromatic ead Gheis bitt : 
This plant is a native of South America and the West India Islands. It was first made known b Marceraf a 
: Piso, m 1648, who met with it in Brazil. The name given by them for the root is Caapeba. In bisa it Sadia 
Paris by M. Amelot, the French Ambassador at Portugal. Some difference of opinion exiats with re pny Step 
sa oe f. affording Pareira Root. Linneus made two species of the plant, founded upon i ccaces ces 
gage ty ot a anaes ager one to two inches long, villous, cylindrical, with a remarkable curvature at bottom, 
wow wt ‘ me vi _ into the leaves at a small distance from the base, so as to make them appear peltate or 
Ry ; ya \. caapeba, with petioles inserted into the lower edge directly. Poiret, by close examination, united 
The East eonparraiggiig ee Lens, some other species, regarded as distinct, may be. thereéd in it as acting 
peal Paved iccon . ee. Caapeba is the name which the root bears in Sout h Am erica. It is called 
Analyzed by Feneulle (Journ. de Pharm.). ; MG. rai 
colouring a arah se 3 me — = hig a soft resin, yellow’ bitter Di rinciple, brown 
mineral salts. ‘W; os a, Supe time, nitrate of potash, and some ammoniacal and 
The yellow bitte iggers, In 1838, announced the discovery of a new vegetable alkali? which he called Cissampelin 
4 yinemetial properin ae tne of nc and dre : 
‘ of the E einai titaads ose of a tonic an: : uretic. It has been employed with some advan eina 
urino-ge organs. In chronic inflammation of the bladder, the testimony of Sir B. Brodie gi snes, 
