426 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



Xiopo Snuff and the Mode of using it 



II. PIPTADENIA NIOPO, Humboldt 



Synonyms Acacia"? A r iofo, Humb., Re/. Hist. ii. p. 620: 

 ejusdem Nov. Gen. Amer. vi. p. 282; DC. Prodr. ii. p. 471. 

 Inga Niopo, Willd. 



Description. Tree, 50 feet by 2 feet, with muricated bark, 

 otherwise unarmed. Leaves bipinnate ; pinnae twenty-four pairs : 

 pinnules very numerous, minute, linear, mucronato-apiculate, 

 ciliated, sparsely sub -pubescent. An oblong gland on petiole 

 above base ; another between terminal pinnae. Racemes axillary 

 and terminal ; pedicels twin, each bearing a small globose head 

 of white flowers. Corolla slightly emersed from 5-angled calyx. 

 Stamens 10; anthers tipped with a gland. Pod linear, sub-com- 

 pressed, apiculate, 7-i2-seeded, sub-constricted between seeds. 

 Seeds flattish, green. 



Habitat. In the drier forests of the Amazon, and along its 

 tributaries, both northern and southern ; on the Rio Negro, 

 throughout its course ; also at the cataracts of the Orinoco ; both 

 wild and planted near villages. (Santarem, fl. Amazonum, Spruce, 

 Exsicc. No. 828, etiam Janauarf, fl. Negro, No. 1786.) Native 

 names : Parica in Brazil ; Niopo in Venezuela. 



We owe our first knowledge of Niopo snuff, and 

 of the tree producing it, to Humboldt and Bonpland, 

 whose brief account of it is thus condensed by 

 Kunth : "Ex seminibus tritis calci vivae adrnixtis 

 fit tabacum nobile quo Incli Otomacos et Guajibos 

 utuntur " (Synopsis, iv. p. 20). In the modern 

 niopo, as I saw it prepared by the Guahibos them- 

 selves, there is no admixture of quicklime, and that 

 is the sole difference. My specimens of the leaves, 

 flowers, and fruit agree so well with Kunth's de- 

 scription of Acacia Niopo that I cannot doubt their 

 being the same species ; especially as I have traced 

 the tree all the way from the Amazon to the Orinoco, 

 and found it everywhere identical, although it bears 

 a different name on the two rivers, as is commonly 

 the case where the same plant or animal occurs on 



