CEPHALIS IPECACUANHA. 55 
lobes five, small, rather obtuse. Anthers enclosed. Stigma bifid, usually exserted. 
with the remains of the calyx, two-celled, two-seeded. (De Candolle.) f - tied ev tice ap itis 
Specir. CuHar.—Loot perennial, simple, or divided into a few diverging branches, seldom more than from four to 
six inches long, about as thick as a goosequill, ringed, when fresh pale brown, when dry umber coloured, blackish 
umber coloured, or grayish brown, the cortical integument with a reddish resinous glittering fracture, and readily sepa- 
- yating from a central woody axis. Stem suffruticose, from two to three feet long, ascending, often rooting near the 
ground, smooth and cinerous at the base, downy and green at the apex. Leaves seldom more than 4—6 on a stem, 
opposite, oblong, obovate, acute, 3—4 inches long, 1—2 broad, roughish with hairs; petioles short, downy; stipules 
erect, adpressed, membranous, 4—6 cleft. Peduncles solitary, axillary, downy, erect when in flower, reflexed when in 
fruit, about one and a half inches long. lowers capitate; ¢nvolucre one leafed, spreading, deeply four to six parted, 
with obovate acuminate, ciliated segments. Bractes to each flower one, obovate oblong, acutedowny. Calyx minute, 
obovate, with five bluntish short teeth. Corolla white, funnel shaped; tube cylindrical, downy on the outside and at 
the orifice; limb shorter than the tube, with five ovate reflexed segments. Stamens five. Filaments filiform, white, 
smooth. Anthers linear, longer than the filaments, projecting a little beyond the corolla. Ovary with a fleshy disk at 
the apex. Style filiform. Stigmas two, linear. Berry ovate, about the size of a kidney bean, dark violet, crowned by 
the small calyx, two-celled, two-seeded, with a longitudinal fleshy dissepiment. Nwcules (seeds) plano-convex, fur- 
rowed on the flat side. (Lndley.) 
This plant produces the officinal zpecacuanha. It is anative of Brazil, growing in moist situations, from 8° to 20° 
south latitude. It is abundant in the valleys of the granitic mountains, which run more or less distant from the sea, 
through the provinces of Rio Janeiro, Espirito Santo and Bahia. It isalso met with in Pernambuco. Humboldt and 
Bonpland state that they found it on the St. Lucar mountains of New Granada, but it must have been the Psychotria 
emetica. See conclusion of the account below. 
The root is called annulated ipecacuanha, to distinguish it from the undulated and striated. The origin of this 
drug was for a long time involved in obscurity. Pereira says that Michael Tristram first mentioned it under the name 
of Igpecaya or Pigaya. It was introduced into Europe about the middle of the seventeenth century, under the name 
of the Brazilian root. The first account of the plant was given by Piso and Maregrave in their work entitled Historva 
Naturalis Brazile ; Amsterdam, 1648; the account being written by Piso. He describes two kinds of [pecacuanha, 
one the white, (undulated, from Richardsonia scabra,) the other brown, (the officinal ;) of the latter he gave a rude figure. 
Although this account was published, and the details so accurately given, that they have merely been extended subse- 
quently, the source of the drug became a matter of speculation, and even Linneus was led into error. His son, in 
the Supplement, having obtained the Psychotria emetica from Mutis, (Peruvian ipecacuanha, ) supposed it was the true 
one; this occurred in 1781. In 1800, Dr. Gomes returned from Brazil, and the following year he published a memoir 
on Ipecacuanha, in which he distinguished the true one from the two others; but having communicated his informa- 
tion and given specimens to his countryman Brotero, in 1802, that individual published surreptitiously a paper upon 
the subject in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, hg to the ce Oy pace tk 
anha. In 1 7 's tpecacuanha, having obtain’ 0 sis 
n 1813, M. Tusac changed the name to Og aii ee 618, M. Richard again insisted on the propriety of 
M. Hectot, of Nantes, to whom Brotero had given it, and finally in 1818, 
? given it, an y hority and 
t . . : rung up between the latter authority 
his name, which has since been adopted. Upon the subject a controversy Sp rials cd Pevchatcia, whieh bh 
ae at -atincti veen the 
Merat, with respect to priority of publication upon the distinction between ant, but had no knowledge of the other. 
again been thrown into doubt by Humboldt, who had met with the Peruvian P ges 
The reason for the change from Calicocca to Cephelis was the agreement with the characters of the latter gen 
established by Swartz ! seaso 
: : [ ns of the 
From Martius, Pereira has compiled the following information. «The roots abi ee ae of the plant, 
year, though more frequently from January to March inclusive, and as no care = he “ie eizhbourhood of the plant, 
it has become scarce around the principal towns. ‘Those Brazilian farmers who ae ge i 7 Niection of it. ‘Those 
carry on considerable commerce in it. The native Indians also are very er Mines, as well as their 
. ince of 
called by the Portuguese the Coroados, who live near the rivet ale Le ae for two months at a time, 
neighbours the Puri, are the greatest collectors of it. a ee ri the roots from the stems, dry them in 
fixing their habitations in those places in which this plant abounds. They 
€ sun, and pack them in bundles of various sizes and forms.” red, and the gray; the 
Three varieties of the officinal ipecacuanha are signalized by oral at o aes found in pieces 
18 most common. The difference between them must depend upon soil and loc . pecac 
