Brugmansia vulcanicola (A.S. Barclay) R.E. Schultes comb. 
nov. 
Datura vulcanicola A. S. Barclay in Bot. Mus. Leafl., Har- 
vard Univ. 18 (1959) 260. 
All parts of the plant of Brugmansia vulcanicola give very 
positive spot tests for alkaloids with Dragendorff reagent. Al- 
though further chemical studies have not yet been carried out 
on this species, it seems logical to presume that it contains the 
same tropane alkaloids found in all other species of the genus. 
Some six species of Brugmansia are recognized, all native to 
South America and all but two native to relatively high parts of 
the Andes. All have been employed by native peoples as hal- 
lucinogens (Schultes, 1976; Schultes and Hofmann, 1973). In 
prehispanic times the Chibcha-speaking Muisca people of the 
high plateau of Bogota used Brugmansia aurea Lagerheim to 
drug the women and slaves who were to be buried with a dead 
chief. Juan de Castellanos described this custom four centuries 
ago (de Castellanos, 1589): *‘At Tunja, in the land of the Chib- 
cha-speaking Muiscas, the dead chief was accompanied to the 
tomb by his women and slaves, who were buried in different 
layers of earth .. . of which none was without gold. And so 
that the women and poor slaves should not fear their death 
before they saw the awful tomb, the nobles gave them things to 
drink of inebriating tobacco and other leaves of the tree we call 
borrachero (‘intoxicator’), all mixed in their usual drink, so 
that of their senses none is left to foresee the harm soon to 
befall them.”’ 
The depiction of the tree — which the Chibcha-speaking 
Guambianos call yas — as the only plant and its association 
with the name borrachero lead us to suspect strongly that it was 
chosen and drawn because of its importance as an hallucinogen 
in indigenous life. This suspicion is heightened by the very 
conspicuous association of the large bird with the tree: the bird 
is a symbol of evil and sorcery amongst these Indians. 
A translation of Hernandez de Alba’s text which accom- 
panied the Indian drawing follows. 
154 
