BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 21 , 1939 _ Vol. 7, No. 3 
PLANTAE MEXICANAE II 
BY 
Richard Evans Schultes ^ 
THE IDENTIFICATION OF TEONANACATL, 
A NARCOTIC BASIDIOMYCETE OF THE AZTECS 
I. Introduction 
Investigations dealing with the vegetable narcotics, 
intoxicants, and poisons used by primitive peoples com¬ 
prise studies which involve some of the most fundamental 
culture-traits. The narcotic plants of the New World 
especially are attracting popular attention while stimu¬ 
lating scientific interest. In this connection, a large eth- 
nobotanical and ethnopharmacological literature is being 
developed. A recent anthropological study (13) has briefly 
summarized some of the information concerning the 
primitive uses of a number of narcotics and has empha¬ 
sized the importance to theoretical anthropology of cor¬ 
rectly identified and thoroughly investigated ethnobo- 
tanical material. Indeed, this summary and other recent 
papers have clearly emphasized the need, as well as the 
desirability, of further botanical and ethnological inves¬ 
tigations of plant narcotics, their uses, and their signifi¬ 
cance. 
The plant narcotics of Mexico are of unique interest 
because careful records of their uses at the time of the 
Spanish Conquest are often available. It is possible,there- 
t fore, to compare their past uses with the uses madeo^ 
[ 87 ] Jil 
