16 ORD. IV. Aggregate. CEPHAELIS IPECACUANHA. 
as otherwise forming a valuable remedial agent in our list of materia medica ; 
yet the botanical characters of the plant itself were unknown, till Professor 
Brotero of Coimbra, determined the genus to which it ought to be referred.* 
According to Decandolle, the term Ipecacuanha, in South America, implies 
vomiting-root, and therefore it is applied to the roots of very different plants, 
viz. Asclepias currassavica—Cynanchum Ipecacuanha—Viola parviflora—V. 
Ipecacuanha—V. Calceolaria—and Cynanchum tomentosum : and sometimes 
to the Dorstenia brasiliensis—D. Arifolia—and to the Euphorbia ipecacuanha.t 
Two varieties of the root are brought to this country, packed in bales from 
Rio Janeiro,—the brown and the white, but whether they be the roots of one 
and the same plant, or otherwise, does not appear to be exactly determined. 
According to Mutis, the former is the root of the cephaélis, and the latter, on 
the authority of M.Gomez, we must suppose to be yielded by the Richard- 
sonia Brasiliensis. There is also a third variety, called black Ipecacuan, which 
is a native of Peru, and is exported from Carthagena to Cadiz. It is the 
root of the psychotria emetica. It is fusiform, striated, articulated, but not 
annulated. White Ipecacuan is externally ofa dirty white éolonr, and turns 
brownish by drying, is simple, or little blanched, five or six lines thick, 
three inches long or upwards, attenuated at the extremities, variously con- 
torted, with transverse annular rugosities, but larger than those of the brown 
Ipecacuan, its bark is thick, white, internally softer than the brown, the 
woody part white, hard, and as fine as a thread. The brown Ipecacuan is 
characterized by being contorted, wrinkled, and unequal in thickness, having - 
a thick bark, deeply fissured transversely, covering a very small, central, 
woody part, so as to give the idea of a number of rings strung upon a thread. 
Its colour varies with different shades of brown or grey. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties, §c. The root of Ipecacuan is inodorous, 
unless when reduced to powder, in which state it has a faint and somewhat 
unpleasant smell. The taste is nauseous, bitter, and slightly acrid. Boiling 
water takes up eight parts in twenty, proof spirit about six and a half, and 
alcohol four parts. Various experiments have been instituted by chemists, 
to detect the particular constituent to which Ipecacuanha owes its emetic 
* Vide Verses Trans. vol. vi. 
+In St. Domingo, several species of Ruellia, which excite vomiting, are denominated 
false Ipecacuan. Vide Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, Art. Tpecacuanha. 
