cine over three centuries ago in the Rio Maranon of Peru. Padre 
Juan Lorenzo Lucero wrote in 1682 that the Jivaro Indians“... 
put together these evil herbs [Banisteriopsis, Brugmansia and 
other narcotics] with guafiusa and tobacco, also invented by the 
devil, and allow them to boil until the small remaining quantity 
of juice becomes the quintescence of evil, and the faith of those 
who drink it is rewarded by the devil with the fruit of maledic- 
tion, and always to the great misfortune of many . . .” (Jiménez, 
1889). Later, in 1738, an Italian missionary wrote that the priests 
employed it as a stomach tonic. At the same time, in 1739, Padre 
Andrés de Zarate reported that one product of the Jesuit mis- 
sions was “guayusa.” The Jesuits exported guayusa from their 
missions and sold the leaves in Quito (five leaves for half a real) 
as a medicine (Figueroa, 1904). 
When the Jesuits were expelled from Ecuador in 1766, the 
business which they had established with guayusa as a cure of 
venereal disease fell apart. This did not affect, however, the use 
of Ilex Guayusa amongst the Jivaro and Kanelo of the Rios 
Napo and Pastaza; these natives continued to cultivate it. 
It was at this time, in 1857, that Spruce encountered guayusa 
extensively under cultivation amongst these same natives at 
Antombos, near Bafios, in Ecuador. Spruce’s report (Spruce, 
1908) is a most detailed record of guayusa and deserves, there- 
fore, to be quoted in full. | am unable to explain why Spruce 
failed to make herbarium specimens of //ex Guayusa, unless his 
reason for neglecting this task was absence of flowers or fruits 
on the trees which he found. He wrote: “Instead of Cupana or 
Guarana [Paullinia Cupana HBK.], the Zaparos and Jibaros, 
who inhabit the eastern side of the Equatorial Andes, have 
Guayusa, a plant of very similar properties, but used by them in 
a totally different way. The Guayusa is a true Holly [//ex], allied 
to the maté or Paraguay tea (//ex paraguayensis), but with much 
larger leaves. | was unable to find it in flower or fruit, and 
cannot say if it be a described species. The tree is planted near 
villages, and small clumps of it in the forest on the ascent of the 
Cordillera indicate deserted Indian sites. The highest point at 
which I have seen it is at about 5000 feet above the sea, in the 
gorge of the Pastasa below Bafios, on an ancient site called 
Antombos, a little above a modern cane-farm of the same name. 
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