white latex, with a Banisteriopsis. He might have erred 
as to genus, for the genera of the Apocynaceae are often 
hard to distinguish even with flowers. But even this pos- 
sibility would seem, in the case of Spruce, to be rather 
remote. Schultes, on his long collection trip along the 
Colombian and Brazilian course of the Rio Vaupés, 
searched for an apocynaceous vine growing around In- 
dian huts, as described by Spruce; although every Indian 
Manihot-plot boasts its several cultivated plants of Ban- 
isteriopsis, nothing resembling a Prestonia was ever seen 
under cultivation. 
A careful reading of Spruce’s notes reveals the fact 
that he never claimed more for Prestonia or caapi-pinima 
than the role of a plant used as an admixture. We know 
from the reports of later workers that other plants are 
sometimes added in minute amounts to the drink pre- 
pared from Banisteriopsis in the belief that they change 
the attributes or properties of the narcotic drink. Schultes 
(28) reported the admixture of leaves of an apocynaceous 
tree, possibly Malouetia Tamaquarina, amongst the Ma- 
kuna Indians of the Rio Popeyaca of Colombia. Later 
writers, without herbarium specimens to back their 
claims, and taking their cue from Spruce whose notes 
they misread or misunderstood, have proposed that the 
narcotic drink in one part of the Amazon where it is 
known as yaje is prepared exclusively from Prestonia 
amazonica. For this assertion there is absolutely no basis 
in field work. 
Prestonia amazonica is known from only one collection, 
the type collection made by Spruce in 1859 at Trombe- 
tas on the lower Amazon. In more than a century, the 
species has never been found again. We are forced, con- 
sequently, to believe that Prestonia amazonica is either 
a very rare species or else a strict endemic, confined to 
the general area where the type was collected. The Rio 
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