BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
CamBripGr, Massacuuserts, NoveMBER 19, 1937 Voi. 5, No. 5 
PEYOTE (LOPHOPHORA WILLIAMSIT) 
AND PLANTS CONFUSED WITH IT 
BY 
Ricuarp Evans ScCHULTES 
A staTE of great confusion exists at the present time 
in the ethnobotany of peyote. This is due partly to long 
and close association of peyote (Lophophora Williamsii 
(I.emaire) Coulter) with other plants in religious and ther- 
apeutic uses and partly to fragmentary and conflicting 
records of the use of the narcotic plants of Mexico in the 
early centuries after Spanish settlement of the country. 
As a result of this confusion, ethnological and other in- 
vestigations of the narcotic cactus are greatly hindered by 
widespread ambiguity in plant names. A clear under- 
standing of the complex of plants associated or confused 
with Lophophora Williamsi is absolutely essential to the 
further progress of anthropological investigation of the 
ever-increasing peyote-cult of the United States.’ 
I. Common names of Lophophora Williamsii.’ 
The variety of common names which refer to Lopho- 
phora Wilhamsu in the United States and Mexico is so 
great as to demand thorough consideration of the etymol- 
ogy, use, and significance of each name. Moreover, such 
treatment may be of value in bringing attention to cer- 
tain otherwise hidden facts attendant upon the aboriginal 
‘Footnotes will be found on pages 78-80. 
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