404 ANNUAL REPOPxT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 



tribe Dalbergieae, of the Fabaceac (Pea) family. Subsequent 

 studies established its identity as Lonchocar'pus nicou (Aubl.) DC.^ 



The Chanchamayo Valley, which was next visited, lies east of 

 Lima and across the Andes. So interesting was the vegetation here 

 that a full month was spent in general collecting at La Merced and 

 tlie Perene Colony, two important settlements in this valley, though 

 (mly a single plantation of Lonchocarpus nicou was seen here. A 

 family of Indians from the interior had taken over a chacra. as the 

 small farms are called, and had set out a few branches of cube^ 

 brought with them from their earlier home. From these some 50 

 thriving plants had developed. Of special note is the fact that these 

 plants were growing at about 4,100 feet, a higher altitude than 

 observed elsewhere on the trip. 



The common fish poison of this region, however, was Tephrosia 

 toxicana; indeed, along that part of the Perene River the Indians 

 apparently use that plant exclusively. At the colony we obtained our 

 first and only information of the use of Sapindaceae as fish poisons. 

 An Austrian immigrant, who had lived many years among the 

 Cashivi Indians to the northward, told of their using various species 

 of a vine known by them as verap^ and he showed us three different 

 species growing wild in the thickets near his house. These plants 

 proved to be Serjania glahrata Kunth, Serjania rubicaulis Benth., 

 and Se7'jania rufa Radlk. Along the Pichis mule trail, which begins 

 at the Perene Colony, crosses a range at 6,000 feet altitude, and ter- 

 minates at the Pichis lliver, Tephros'm toxicana alone among fish 

 poisons was found, with the exception of a single plant of Loncho- 

 carpus nicou at Santa Rosa, near the end of the trail. Along the 

 Pichis, Pachitea, and Ucayali Rivers both of these and a third plant, 

 Olihadiuni strigillosum Blake, called guaco^ were seen in cultivation, 

 though in no case were the plantings extensive. Apparently the use 

 of fish poisons is being given up along this main route of travel be- 

 tween Lima and the Amazon, possibly from a more rigid enforcement 

 of the laws, but more probably from an increasing use of dynamite. 

 Usually in this region Lonchocarpus nicou was referred to as cohapi. 

 Iquitos, the capital of the Department of Loreto, 2,400 miles from 

 the mouth of the Amazon and yet with an altitude of only about 

 325 feet, proved to be the center of the cultivation of Lonchocarpus 

 nicou. From here westward as far as the rapids of Manseriche and 

 Balsapucrto this appeared to be one of the commonest of cultivated 

 plants; indeed, with the exception of bananas, plantains, and yuca, 

 it was probably the most commonly cultivated plant. In this region, 

 and in fact at all points north of the Chanchamayo, the name cute 

 was never used. Barhasco^ the general word for fish-poison plants in 



''See Killip and Smith, The Identity of the South American Fish Poisons cvhe ami 

 timM. Journ. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 20, pp. 74-81, 193Q. 



