—that Barasana medicine men snuff Pagamea macrophylla in 
ceremonies—is certainly not proof that the plant has hallucino- 
genic properties. It is, however, sufficient indication that a 
member of this alkaloid-rich family may represent an hitherto 
undected psychoactive agent and to warrant phytochemical 
study of the species. 
III 
Pagamea is a genus of rubiaceous trees and shrubs with 20 to 
23 species of tropical northern South America. It has been 
suggested that Pagamea belongs more properly in the Logani- 
aceae (Standley in Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Bot. 13 (1936) 144). It 
was described in 1775 by Aublet from French Guiana. The 
leaves are opposite, with deciduous stipules connate in a kind of 
Sheath. The axillary or terminal inflorescences are borne in the 
form of small heads, spikes, racemes or panicles. The herma- 
phroditic flowers are usually 4- to 5-merous. The dentate or 
lobate calyx, sometimes truncated, is persistent. The corolla 
lobes in bud are valvate. The stamens number four to five. The 
Ovary is superior, 2- to 5-locular, with one ovule per locule. The 
fruit is a drupe. 
In Venezuela, the species of Pagamea are known as ajo de 
paloma (“garlic of the dove”). For Colombia and Brazil, no 
common names of Pagamea are reported in Spanish or Portu- 
guese. 
Species of this genus are restricted to the northwestern part of 
the Amazon, the adjacent areas of the upper Orinoco and the 
Guianas. They appear to be in general associated with the 
Venezuelan-Guianan land mass. In the Colombian Amazonia, 
they occur on the flat quartzitic mountains of Cretaceous age in 
the Vaupés and Apaporis River basins or with the sandy 
remnants of these eroded mountains. 
IV 
The Kubeo Indians living on affluents of the Rio Vaupés in 
Colombia have an interesting use for Pagamea coriacea Spruce 
ex Bentham, a species related closely to P. macrophylla. They 
heat the blue-black fruits in oil from the palm Jessenia Bataua 
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