‘*My surprise arose from the fact that there was no nar- 
cotic malpighia on record, nor indeed any species of that 
order with strong medicinal properties of any kind. 
Byrsonima ... includes many species... their bark 
abounds in tannins... Another genus—Bunchosia .. . 
of the Andes. . . is described in books as poisonous, and 
if it be really so, then it is the only instance, so far as | 
know, of the existence of any hurtful principle in the 
entire family ... excepting ... caapi.”’ ‘‘Yet,’’ he 
prophetically remarked ‘‘strong poisons may lurk undis- 
covered in many others of the order, which is very large 
; and the closely allied soapworts (Sapindaceae) 
contain strong narcotic poisons, especially in the genus 
Paullinia.”’ 
In many ways, Spruce was ahead of his times. In 
those years, there was little liaison between botanical 
explorers and chemists of the laboratory. Botanists sel- 
dom gathered material for phytochemical study, and in 
Spruce’s case the great distance and isolation of his scene 
of field work and the primitiveness and absence of nor- 
mal communications one might believe would have made 
it impracticable or impossible for him to gather material 
in bulk for pharmaceutical specialists. Notwithstanding 
these drawbacks, Spruce did so enrich science, but, like 
so many collectors even in modern times, he was frus- 
trated in his attempt. 
‘*T obtained a good many pieces of stem [from the 
type plant of Banisteria Caapi], dried them carefully, 
and packed them in a large box, which contained the 
botanical [herbarium] specimens, and dispatched them 
down the river for England in March 1853. The man 
who took that box and four others on freight, in a large 
new boat he had built on the Uaupés, was seized for debt 
when about half-way down the Rio Negro, and his boat 
and all its contents confiscated. My boxes were thrown 
[124 J 
