NARCOTIC PLANTS AND STIMULANTS SAFFOBD. 397 



For a full account of this interesting narcotic the reader is referred 

 to the author's recent paper, " Identity of Cohoba, the narcotic snuff 

 of ancient Haiti," published in the Journal of the Washington Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, volume 6, pages 547 to 562. It is remarkable that 

 the identity of cohoba, mentioned in the very first account of the 

 ethnology of the aboriginal inhabitants of the New World, should 

 have remained unknown for three centuries, and more remarkable 

 still that the seeds of Piptadenia peregrina, known to possess violent 

 narcotic properties, should never have been studied by chemists. 

 Humboldt was so much surprised on finding that the source of the 

 snuff was a leguminous seed that he suggested the possibility of its 

 intoxicating effects being due to the admixture of lime with it, but 

 Richard Spruce, who saw the snuff prepared without lime, showed 

 that this supposition was erroneous. It is not so strange, as Hum- 

 boldt would indicate, that seeds of Leguminosae should possess nar- 

 cotic properties. The scarlet seeds of SopJiora secuThdifora, or Brous- 

 sonetia secmulifora, of Texas and northern Mexico, are also very 

 narcotic and are still used by certain Indian tribes for ceremonial 

 purposes, as described below. 



THE RED BEAN OF NORTHERN MEXICO AND TEXAS. 

 (Plate 3.) 



Broussonetia secundijlora^ described and figured by Ortega in 1798 

 from a plant growing in the Royal Garden at Madrid, but more com- 

 monly known by the name Sophora secundiflora, is a beautiful ever- 

 green shrub or small tree with pinnately compound glossy leaves, 

 racemes of violet-colored flowers, and indehiscent pods containing 

 scarlet bean-like seeds. The latter have been studied chejnically and 

 are known to contain a narcotic poisonous alkaloid allied to cytisin, 

 having a physiological effect very much like that of tobacco. From 

 Texas, reports have been received that the seeds have poisoned chil- 

 dren. The j)lant, though usually avoided by animals, is eaten by 

 deer and goats, and the hard, glossy beans when swallowed whole are 

 apparently harmless. In early days they were much used by certain 

 tribes of Indians for making a narcotic decoction, and when ground 

 to a powder were put in mescal, or Agave brandy, to make it more 

 intoxicating; hence the name "mescal bean," which was formerly 

 applied to them. 



In early days these beans were so highly valued by the Indians of 

 the Mexican border region that a string of them 6 feet long would 

 be accepted in barter for a pony. According to Dr. Rothrock, who 

 quotes Mr. Bellanger, of Texas, " the Indians near San Antonio used 

 this bean as an intoxicant, half a bean producing delirious exhilara- 

 tion followed by a sleep that lasts two or three days ; and it is asserted 

 that a whole bean would kill a man." ^ 



1 See Havard, V., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 8 : 500. 1885. 



