LIGNUM NEPHRITICUM- — SAFFORD. 283 



and tipped by the persistent base of the style, usually glandular- 

 punctate, indehiscent, pendent or abruptly reflexed, sometimes widely 

 spreading or ascending, but never erect and appressed, purplish 

 at the apex when fresh, usually containing a single seed near the apex. 



The earliest description of this plant was that of Hernandez, as 

 already indicated, which, though written about the year 1575, re- 

 mained unpublished until 1615, when it appeared in the form of 

 Ximenez's Spanish translation of the original Latin, in Mexico City. 

 Of the identity of Hernandez's plant there can be no doubt; for it 

 had small pinnately compound leaves suggesting those of a garvanzo 

 {Cicer arietinmn)^ but smaller and almost like the pinnately divided 

 leaves of the common rue {Ruta chalepensis) ^ though "somewhat 

 larger, a mean between these two extremes; and small longish flow- 

 ers, yellow and delicate, arranged in spikes." According to Hernan- 

 dez it grows in moderately warm regions like the Valley of Mexico, 

 and still warmer situations like Guachinango [in the present State 

 of Puebla], Chimalhuacan [in the district of Texcoco], Chalco, and 

 Tepuztlan [near Cuernavaca, State of Morelos], and almiost through- 

 out the entire extent of the mal pais [the pedregal^ or lava beds] of 

 Coyohuacan ; and in many other places." 



The first botanical description of the plant, in the modern sense 

 of the word, was that of Gomez Ortega, in 1798, as cited above; but 

 Ortega, in spite of the fact that he had but recently included a de- 

 scription of the Mexican lignum nephriticum, or coatl, in the Madrid 

 edition of Hernandez's works,* which he himself edited, had not the 

 slightest idea that his Viborquia, grown in the Royal Garden of 

 Madrid from seeds sent by Sesse from Mexico, had any connection 

 whatever with lignum nephriticum, or even that its wood would yield 

 a fluorescent infusion. 



Ortega named the genus in honor of " Viborq, most distinguished 

 professor of the botanical garden of Copenhagen, who, when recently 

 he journeyed through Spain and visited Madrid, left in us a deep 

 appreciation of his kindliness and conversation." Unfortunately, 

 the generic name Viborquia had, according to the laws of nomen- 

 clature, to be abandoned on account of its prior use by Moench of 

 Marburg for another genus (written Viborgia) named for the same 

 man (1794), and the much later name, Eysenhardtia of Humboldt, 

 Bonpland and Kunth, proposed in 1823, had to be substituted for it. 

 In this connection it is also interesting to note that Humboldt and 

 Bonpland, like Ortega, had no idea of the connection of their plant 

 with lignum nephriticum. 



1 " De Coatli, seu Aqueo Serpente. — Coatli, quam alii Tlapalezpatli, seu medicinam 

 sanguinis coccineam vocant, frutex est magnus, foliis Ciceris, minoribus tamen, ruta- 

 ceisve, sed majoribus, flore luteii elanguoscenti, parvo et longiusculo, composito in 

 spicas." — Hernandez, ed. Matr., 1: 349. 1790. 



