plished up to that date on the botanical identification 
and chemical constitution of this complex of malpighia- 
ceous narcotics was published in 1927 by two French 
pharmacologists, Perrot and Hamet (66,67). They 
pointed out that even more confusion reigned in the 
chemical field of investigation than in the botanical, prin- 
cipally because pharmacologists and chemists consistently 
disregarded taxonomic accuracy in identifying the sources 
of plant materials under study. Perrot and Hamet con- 
cluded that (a) yajé, ayahuasca and caapi refer to one 
species of plant: i.e., Banisteriopsis Caapi; and that (b) 
no apocynaceous plant is at all concerned in the problem 
of the source of the narcotic known under these three 
names. Notwithstanding the meritorious efforts of Per- 
rot and Hamet, their review brought little clarification 
into either the botanical or the chemical picture. 
In reply to the article by Perrot and Hamet, the Ger- 
man botanist Niedenzu (59) published several very in- 
teresting observations based on herbarium specimens 
preserved in the Berlin Herbarium. These specimens are, 
of course, no longer extant, but the notes are of special 
importance because of the authenticity of the determi- 
nations at the hand of an outstanding specialist in the 
Malpighiaceae. The collection Tessmann 5424 from Ya- 
rina Cocha on the Rio Ucayali in eastern Peru repre- 
sented, according to Niedenzu, a mixture: leaves of 
Mascagnia psilophylla (Juss.) Griseb. var. antifebrilis 
(Ruiz & Pav.) Ndz. and, in a paquet attached to the 
sheet, samaras of Banisteriopsis quitensis (Ndz.) Morton; 
on the label was annotated the vernacular name of haya- 
wasca or ayawasca and the observation ‘‘Stiicke der Liane 
gekocht, dann kalt genommen.’’ Niedenzu further called 
attention to three specimens of Banistertopsis quitensis. 
Eggers 15485, from eastern Ecuador, consisted of leaves, 
scanty flowers and plentiful fruit and had a note that, 
[ 19 ] 
