... . Notwithstanding, according to information which I ob- 
tained from the natives themselves in two localities in the upper 
Rio Negro, the paricd-powder comes from the leaves of 
species of Virola . . ..’ (Ducke, 1939). It is now known with 
certainty that the leaves are not used, but Ducke’s reports 
represent apparently the earliest identification of this narcotic 
powder with the correct genus of trees. 
It was not until 1954, however, that the preparation of the 
snuff was described in detail and specifically identified on the 
basis of voucher botanical material. During my ethnobotanical 
studies in Amazonian Colombia, I encountered the Indians of 
the Vaupés region preparing a brownish snuff taken for cere- 
monial inebriation only by witch doctors for diagnosis and 
treatment of disease, prophecy and divination and for a variety 
of other magical purposes. It was prepared from the inner bark 
of Virola calophylla (Spr.) Warb. or V. calophylloidea Mark- 
graf (Schultes, 1954a, 1954b). Later field work indicated that V. 
elongata (Benth.) Warb. is likewise a source of the drug 
(Prance, 1970, 1978; Brewer-Carias and Steyermark, 1976). 
Gradually, studies established the fact that the most intense 
use of Virola-snuff occurs amongst the large group of Indian 
subtribes known collectively as the Waikas, inhabiting the 
upper reaches of the Orinoco and the northern tributaries of the 
Rio Negro of Venezuela and Brazil, respectively. These In- 
dians refer to the snuff usually as epena, ebene or nyakwana. 
The main source of the powder amongst the Waikas is Virola 
theiodora (Spr. ex Benth.) Warb., as established by voucher 
specimens which Bo Holmstedt and I collected from two dif- 
ferent groups of these Indians in Brazil in 1967 (Schultes and 
Holmstedt, 1968). Other species have been indicated by Ettore 
Biocca for the same region (Biocca, 1966), but it seems that 
botanical material upon which corroboration of these identifi- 
cations can be based is no longer available if, indeed, it ever 
was collected: the other species that he reports are V. calophyl- 
loidea, V. cuspidata, (Benth.) Warb. and V. rufula (Mart. ex 
DC.) Warb. Since these species do give positive alkaloid reac- 
tions to spot tests in the field, it is possible that they are actually 
used as the basis of narcotic preparations. 
Subsequent to the discovery of the use of Viro/a in preparing 
315 
