LIGNUM NEPIIRITICUM SAFFOED. 297 



carpus growing in Mexico, but there is no record of cups of known 

 Mexican origin. That which Kircher received from the procurator 

 of the Jesuits in Mexico had in all probability been brought as a 

 curiosity to Mexico from the Philippines, for at that time the only 

 trade route from the Philippines to Spain was by way of Mexico. 

 It is also quite probable that Monardes's wood and the wood men- 

 tioned by Hernandez as being carried on shipboard in the form of 

 large logs was Philippine lignum nephriticum. 



The source of lignum nephriticum has remained uncertain for so 

 long a time owing to the following causes: (1) Neither the Mexican 

 nor the Philippine wood is known in its native country by the name 

 lignum nephriticum; (2) from the beginning of its history the two 

 woods bearing this name among pharmacologists were confused; (3) 

 pharmaceutical material and cups were unaccompanied b}' botanical 

 material; (4) botanical material in herbaria was lacking in wood 

 and was usually unaccompanied by economic notes; (5) the original 

 botanical descriptions of the species yielding lignum nephriticum 

 were unaccompanied by references to the phenomenon of fluorescence ; 

 (G) the source of the wood described by Monardes was sought in 

 Mexico, but was in all probability of Philippine origin; (7) attempts 

 were made to identify the Mexican plant described by Hernandez 

 with the wood described by Monardes and the cups described by 

 Kircher and Bauhin, which only led to confusion. 



The botanical identity of the Mexican lignum nephriticum was 

 first indicated in 1854, b}'^ Dr. Leonardo Oliva, of the University of 

 Guadalajara. It was established with certainty by the writer, 

 January 6, 1915, through the exhibition of the wood and its fluores- 

 cent infusion accompanied by botanical material from the mother 

 plant.^ 



The identity of the Philippine lignum nephriticum was clearly 

 indicated, under its vernacular names, in 1701 by the Jesuit, George 

 Joseph Kamel, and the origin of the cups carved from the wood was 

 revealed in 1754 by another Jesuit, Padre Juan J. Delgado ; but the 

 work of the latter remained in manuscript until 1892. Its botanical 

 classification was first established in 1837 by Padre Blanco, in his 

 Flora de Filipinas, under the name Pterocarpus pallidus, which is 

 now regarded as a synonvm for Pterocarpus indicus. 



Closely allied to the tree, which yields Philippine lignum nephri- 

 ticum are the padouk of Burma {Pterocarpus viacrocarjjus) and the 

 Andaman redwood {Pterocarpus dalhergioides) ^ both of which pro- 

 duce red and pale colored varieties of wood. The padouk yields a 

 fluorescent infusion very much like that of the Philippine narra. 

 An infusion of the deep red variety of Andaman wood shows little 



1 See Safford, W. E. " Bysenhardtia polystachya, the source of the true lignum nephriti- 

 cum mexicanum." Jour. Wash. Acad. 5: 503-517. 1915. 



