1853.] Linnean Society. 263 



and 110° and 40° W. longitude. Jamaica, from whence so large 

 a quantity is annually obtained, has been well ascertained not to 

 produce any itself, the article known as " Jamaica Sarsaparilla " 

 being imported into that island from the Spanish Main ; nor is it 

 authentically proved to occur in any of the other islands of the 

 West Indies. The rhizoma is cylindrical, and the roots {Sarsaparilla 

 of Commerce), abounding more or less in starch, according to age and 

 locality, are as many as 10 feet in length, and generally furnished with 

 branched rootlets (beards). The plant itself is glabrous in every 

 part, and averages 50 feet in length. The stem is quadrangular, 

 furrowed or striated, and on the edges furnished with flat prickles, 

 which are occasionally curved upwards. The branches are either 

 quadrangular or multiangular, and either with or without prickles. 

 The petiole, sheathing at the base, is furnished with two spirally- 

 twisted tendrils, which are often 10 inches long, and either furnished 

 with prickles or destitute of them. The leaves are extremely vari- 

 able ; at times they are broadly cordate, almost trilobed, gradually 

 tapering to an acumen ; at others they are ovate-oblong, and even 

 lanceolate, and rounded at the apex, but always mucronate ; they 

 are generally 5-nerved, the two outermost nerves being mostly 

 bifurcated, and all the nerves prominent on the under surface, acutely 

 edged and often furnished with prickles ; the colour of the leaves is 

 of a dark green, the under surface being a shade paler than the upper, 

 but never glaucous ; as in many other species oi Smilax, their length 

 varies from 2 inches to a foot, and their breadth at the base from 

 1 to 6 inches ; in thickness also they vary considerably, being 

 either coriaceous or more or less paper-like, and in the latter case 

 furnished with transparent lineolar dots. The peduncles are axillary 

 and solitary, somewhat flattened, and bear an umbel composed of 

 about sixteen flowers. The flowers are still unknown. The berries 

 are round, red, and of the size of a small cherry or less ; and each 

 contains two or three plano-convex seeds of a light brown colour. 



Dr. Seemann does not expect that botanists will object to the union 

 of the three supposed species ; but he fears that pharmacologists 

 may be disinclined to adopt his views, inasmuch as regarding the 

 different commercial sorts of Sarsaparilla as essentially distinct, they 

 lay great stress upon certain superficial characters of little botanical 

 importance. Thus the so-called Lisbon or Brazilian Sarsaparilla, 

 which comes in rolls about 3 feet long, is chiefly distinguished 

 from the Jamaica Sarsaparilla, by having fewer rootlets or beards, 

 and inasmuch as the beards contain a greater amount of mealy matter, 

 is on that accountof less value in the market. But the author states. 



