The earliest published record of the use of any mal- 
pighiaceous narcotic of which I am aware dates from 1858, 
when Villavicencio (95) reported that the drug was em- 
ployed by the Zaparos, Angateros, Mazanes and other 
tribes of the upper Rio Napo in Amazonian Ecuador for 
sorcery, witchcraft, prophecy and divination. Although 
apparently no specimens were taken and no reference to 
a botanical determination was made in Villavicencio’s 
excellent and complete account, which included a report 
on self-intoxication, the common name ayahuasca was 
used, and the plant was described as a liana. Later work 
has definitely shown that ayahuasca in Peru and Ecuador 
belongs, in great part, at least, to the same genus as the 
Brazilian caapi. Indeed, as Spruce noted, although ‘‘of 
the plant itself?’ Villavicencio ‘‘could tell no more than 
that it was a liana or vine,’’ his ‘‘account of its proper- 
ties’’ coincided ‘‘wonderfully with what I had previously 
learnt in Brazil.’’ (90) 
In alist of plant names in the Tupi language of Brazil, 
the explorer von Martius (98,99) discussed caapi, stating 
that the Indians of the Rio Uaupés prepared from the 
fruits of the caapi plant an intoxicating drink, which 
they employed in their dance-ceremonies, and identify- 
ing it as Banisteriopsis Caapi. Since von Martius had 
never visited the Rio Uaupés, this report must be ac- 
cepted as an indirect one. He may have seen specimens 
of the caapi sent by Spruce to Europe and knew that 
Spruce had reported them as the source of the narcotic 
beverage. The statement that the fruits of the liana are 
used as the source of the intoxicants must be read with 
extreme reservation, even with doubt; for none of the 
reports of travellers and explorers who have seen the 
plant in use mention the fruits as the part of the plant 
employed. 
The few incidental references to caapi or ayahuasca 
[5] 
