HERITAGE FROM AMERICAN INDIANS—SAFFORD 409 
Brazilians, and the quauhyetl of the Mexicans. Nicotiana rustica 
was the picietl of the Mexicans, and the uwppowoe of the Virginians; 
it was the sacred tobacco of the Iroquois. West of the Mississippi 
the most important tobacco was Nicotiana attenuata. 
It was believed formerly that the cohoba of the ancient Haitians 
was a preparation of tobacco for smoking. I have learned that it 
was not a smoking tobacco but a kind of snuff, made of the seeds of 
Piptadenia peregrina, which I have identified with the niopa or 
curupa of South America, in use to-day among certain tribes as a 
stimulant or excitant.' 
Among the medicines discovered by the ancient Americans there 
were several precious balsams, such as the balsam of Peru (Myroxy- 
ton pereirae), Tolu balsam (Myroxylon toluifera), copaiva balsam 
(Copaiva langsdorfii), and that of the sweetgum (Liquidambar 
styraciflua). There were also bitter barks, like the Cinchonas, from 
which quinine is extracted, and the quassias, of the Simaruba Family. 
The virtues of some plants used medicinally by the Indians were 
purely imaginary, but the efficacy of others, like the Cinchonas, 
coca, the balsams, and ipecac, has been demonstrated by experiment 
and practice and they have been adopted by modern physicians. 
Some of the dyestuffs of the Indians produced beautiful and dur- 
able colors, but thanks to the discovery of synthetic dyes derived 
from coal tar, their use is constantly diminishing. Even the use of 
logwood and Brazil wood as dyes is decreasing; and the culture of 
the little insects that furnish cochineal (Coccus cacti) is almost ex- 
tinct in Mexico, even in the district of Nochiztlan, whose name signi- 
fies “ Place where cochineal insects abound.” 
Among the textile plants of the ancient Americans there were 
several distinct species of cotton: Gossypium barbadense, the sea- 
island cotton of the Antilles; Gossypiwm hirsutum, the upland cot- 
ton, planted in the United States, Mexico, and Central America; 
Gossypium hopi, cultivated by the Indians of Arizona and New 
Mexico; Gossypium brasiliense, the aminiti of the Indians of Brazil; 
and Gossypium peruvianum, of various colors—white, brown, and 
purple, found in the graves of which I have already spoken. I 
should remark here that in discussing the Brazilian cotton, Piso 
unfortunately made use of an engraving of Gossypium arboreum, 
an Old World species so distinct from ours that it is not possible to 
make hybrids between it and any species of Gossypium found in the 
New World. The same statement may be made of Gossypium her- 
bacewm of the Old World, a species formerly taken to be our Gossyp- 
tum hirsutum, to which the Ichcawijuitl of Mexico, illustrated in 
1575 by Hernandez, is closely related. 
* Safford, W. E., “Identity of cohoba, the narcotic snuff of ancient Haiti,” Journ. 
Washington Acad. Sci., vol. 6, pp. 547-562. 
