949 



The Natural History of the Cedron. 

 By Berthold Seemann, Esq., F.L.S., &c. 



The Cedron {Simaha Cedron, Planch.), one of the Simarubaceae, 

 has probably been known to the aborigines of New Granada from 

 time immemorial, and was early brought to the notice of Europeans. 

 In ' The History of the Buccaniers,' a work published in London in 

 the year 1699, is to be found the first account of the Cedron. Its use 

 as an antidote for the bites of snakes, and its place of growth, — the 

 Island of Coyba, on the coast of Veraguas, — are there distinctly 

 stated ; but whether on the authority of the natives, or on that of the 

 Buccaniers, does not appear. If the former was the case, the rovers 

 must have become acquainted with the tree while on some of their 

 cruises on the Magdalena river; for in the Isthmus of Panama its 

 very existence was unsuspected until lately ; the seeds being always 

 imported from Cartagena. Mutis, as would appear from a commu- 

 nication of Dr. Cespedes, seems to have been acquainted with the 

 Cedron, and doubtless wrote upon it ; but, as most of his works were 

 burnt, by order of the Spanish Government, on the principle that 

 "learning did not become Creoles," that account has not been handed 

 down to us. But, as may be suspected, a plant possessing such bene- 

 ficial properties as the Cedron, and rendered famous by both the tra- 

 ditions and the history of the country which it inhabited, was not 

 doomed to oblivion. About the year 1843, the Government of New 

 Granada sent a commission of several medical men and students, 

 accompanied by Dr. Cespedes, Professor of Botany in the University 

 of Bogota, to ascertain what plant and locality produced the Cedron, 

 and in what quantities the seeds might be procured. The commis- 

 sion seems to have reported so favourably upon the subject it was 

 despatched to investigate, that the Cedron was speedily introduced 

 into the pharmacopoeias of New Granada ; and it is now to be seen 

 in all the apothecaries' shops of that repubhc. The commission did 

 not settle the question botanically, still it may be said to have led to 

 its solution ; for when Mr. William Purdie, late Collector for the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, was at Bogota, his attention was 

 directed to the plant in question by Dr. Cespedes, who supplied a 

 tolerably correct drawing of it, and also information respecting the 

 exact locality in which the celebrated antidote was to be met with. 

 Mr. Purdie, taking advantage of the intelligence, proceeded, in 1846, 

 to the banks of the Magdalena ; but on reaching the village of Nari, 

 VOL. IV. 6 F 



