psychoactive genus Anadenanthera of South America, 
which may well possess the same or similar psychotomi- 
metic constituents. Two of these Mexican species are 
Piptadenia flava, found also in Central America and Co- 
lombia, and Piptadenia constricta. Both are found along 
the Pacific coast, from Sinaloa and Jalisco in the north 
to Guerrero in the south. To my knowledge, neither 
have been tested for hallucinogenic alkaloids. There are 
in addition more than sixty species each of the allied 
genera Mimosa and Acacia in Mexico, and some of these 
may, like certain South American species, contain psy- 
choactive principles. This might be found to apply es- 
pecially to those species credited with sacred, magical, 
or ‘“‘dangerous qualities by local Indians or rural mez- 
tizos and should be chemically studied from the point of 
view of possible hallucinogenic alkaloids. 
Finally, there appear two other possible candidates as 
potential sources of hallucinogenic snuff in southeastern 
Mexico, both with significant South American. ties. 
These are species of Psychotria and Justicia. The former 
is a well known additive in hallucinogenic potions pre- 
pared basically from the Banisteriopsis Caapt vine in 
Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Brazil, while the latter is 
added to /rola snuff or is said even to be employed 
alone as a source of psychotomimetic snuff (Schultes, 
1972a: 45-46, 52). These possibilities emerge from a 
comment by Wassén (1972: 37-88) on a suggestion of 
mine (1968: 160-164) that snuffing might have been 
practiced by the Gulf Coast Olmec. In support of this 
comment, Wassén cites the following excerpt from a let- 
ter to him by Schultes, dated February, 1969: 
We are finding so many plants with tryptamines—the active 
principle of many of the snuffs of South America— that it is very 
possible that in the Mexican Gulf Coast area the Indians could 
have found a plant which, prepared in the form of a snuff, could 
intoxicate as does the snuff of the Waikas. One of these is Psy- 
7 
