swollen at the joints, is the part used. This is beaten in 
a mortar with the addition of water and a small quantity 
of the slender roots of the Apocynac. (apparently a Hae- 
madictyon) called caapi-pinima or painted caapi, from its 
Ivs. being stained and veined with red.. .. Query? 
May not the peculiar effects of the caapi be owing rather 
to the roots of the Haemadictyon (though in such small 
quantity) than to the stems of the Banisteria? The In- 
dians, however, consider the latter the prime agent, at 
the same time admitting that the former is an essential 
ingredient. The two plants are planted near all mallocas 
(villages)... .”’ 
When these notes were published in Spruce’s ‘‘Notes 
of a botanist on the Amazon and Andes’’ (29), they suf- 
fered a slight change of emphasis. The terms of qualifi- 
cation disappeared. The published version states that 
caapi-pinima “‘is an apocynaceous twiner of the genus 
Flaemadictyon, of which I saw only young shoots, with- 
out any flowers. The leaves are of a shining green, painted 
with the strong, blood-red veins. It is possibly the same 
species. . .. distributed by Mr. Bentham under the name 
Haemadictyon amazonicum n. sp. It may be the caapi- 
pinima which gives its nauseous taste to the caapi. .. . 
and itis probably poisonous. ... , but itis not essential 
to the narcotic effect of the Banisteria, which (so far as 
I could make out) is used without any admixture by the 
Guahibos, Zaparos and other nations out of the Uaupés.”’ 
Spruce was one of the most meticulous of all scientist- 
explorers of South America. A less careful and botani- 
cally untrained observer might easily have confounded 
the young shoots of a Prestonia with Banisteriopsis, for 
the leaves of both are opposite, and the leaves of some 
species of Prestonia do resemble remarkably those of 
Banisteriopsis in shape and texture. But Spruce could 
never have confused an apocynaceous plant, full of a 
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