274 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



lines adorning it, was accompanied by sawdust or shavings of the 

 same wood of a reddish color and of no manifest taste. When water 

 was poured into the cup and the sawdust macerated in it, the water 

 assumed in a short time " a wonderful blue and yellow color, and 

 when held up against the light beautifully resembled the varying 

 color of the opal, giving forth reflections, as in that gem, of fiery 

 yellow, bright red, glowing purple, and sea green most wonderful to 

 behold." After quoting Monardes's account of Lignum- nephriticum, 

 the author notes that Csesalpinius believed the latter to be a species 

 of ash (Fraxinus). 



The following year (1651) Eecchi's epitome of Hernandez's work 

 was published at Rome. It contained a description of Lignum 

 nephrlticum, almost identical with that in Ximenez's previously pub- 

 lished Spanish translation. For one of its Nahuatl names, however, 

 the form coaili instead of coatl was used. The latter name, signify- 

 ing " snake water," as well as tlapalezpatli, " blood-tincture medi- 

 cine," which was also used by Hernandez, has been frequently mis- 

 quoted. Thus Pomet, in his Histoire Generale des Drogues, under 

 the heading Bois Nefretique, says that the latter " nous est apporte 

 de la Nouvelle Espagne, principalement du Eoyaume de Mexique ou 

 il est appelle Coult et Tlafolcypaty ^ These names are meaning- 

 less and misleading; and the same may be said of Pomet's figure of 

 the plant, which represents a miniature tree bearing toothed leaves 

 like those of Cirer arietinum (" pois chiches"), out of all proportion 

 to the size of the tree itself. 



Padre Bernabe Cobo, in his Historia del Nuevo Mundo (finished 

 in 1653, but not published until 1890-1895), speaks of wooden drink- 

 ing cups, used for medicinal purposes in New Spain, which turn 

 water blue. He describes the wood from which these cups are made 

 as of a purple color and pretty grain, suitable for carving, and there- 

 fore counted among the most precious woods of the countrj^; and 

 he also states that staffs are made of it. Although he gives the ver- 

 nacular names for many other woods and useful plants in various 

 parts of tropical America he gives none for this, but says that the 

 source of the wood is a certain large tree called arhol de la inmartali- 

 dad. Of this he gives no description nor definite habitat, and it is 

 probable that he never saw a specimen growing. It is quite possible 

 that he confused two woods, the dark-colored coatl^ from the heart 

 wood of which beautiful walking sticks can be made, but which 

 never grows to great size, with some species of Pterocarpu,s of greater 

 dimensions. It is quite certain that his description does not at all 

 apply to the woods out of which the cups of Kircher and Bauhin 

 were made, nor to Monardes's wood, which was " of a white color " 

 find resembled pear wood. 



