about 1200 meters altitude, is close to and above the 
tierra caliente of Vera Cruz. 
We now identify a species of Salvia new to botanists, 
S. divinorum Epling & Jativa, as a psychotropic drug 
used traditionally by the Mazatec Indians of Oaxaca, 
Mexico, in their divination rites. To the ever growing 
family of Mexican phantastica a new member is thus 
added, and for the first time a species of the Labiatae 
joins this interesting group. 
The plant is familiar to virtually all Mazatecs. In 
Huautla de Jiménez (1800 meters) we saw two or three 
plants growing, and a specimen taken to Mexico City 1s 
still alive there in the open air; but these plants do not 
flower. We have never seen the seeds, and no Indian has 
been able to tell us about them. The plant is reproduced 
vegetatively from a shoot stuck into the ground. It re- 
quires black soil, rather than clay, and for the plant to 
prosper moisture must be steady. Many, perhaps most, 
Mazatec families possess a private supply of the plants, 
but almost invariably they are not near the home nor 
near trails where passers-by might see them. We were 
on the watch for Sa/via divinorum as we criss-crossed the 
Sierra Mazateca on horseback in September and October 
of 1962, but never once did we see it. The Indians choose 
some remote ravine for the planting of it and they are 
loath to reveal the spots. No Indian in San José ‘Tenango 
was willing to take us to the plants whence they brought 
back specimens to us. Salvia divinorum seems to be a 
cultigen; whether it occurs in a wild state (except for 
plants that have been abandoned or have escaped) we do 
not know, 
In former times the proprietors of Jand paid no atten- 
tion to growths of hallucinogenic mushrooms and Salvia 
divinorum; but in the last four or five years the market 
for the mushrooms and the possibility of a market for 
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