NARCOTICS AND STIMULANTS 427 



both. Mr. Bentham believes my plant to be the 

 old Mimosa peregrina of Linnaeus (Acacia peregrina, 

 Willd); and if both opinions be correct, then the 

 species must be called Piptadenia peregrina (L.), 

 Benth. ; and Acacia Niopo, Humb., will stand as a 

 synonym. 



I first gathered specimens of the Parica (or 

 Niopo) tree in 1850, near Santarem, at the junction 

 of the Tapajoz and Amazon, where it had appar- 

 ently been planted. In the following year I 

 gathered it on the little river Jauauari one of the 

 lower tributaries of the Rio Negro where it was 

 certainly wild. But I did not see the snuff actually 

 prepared from the seeds and in use until June 1854, 

 at the cataracts of the Orinoco. A wandering horde 

 of Guahibo Indians, from the river Meta, was en- 

 camped on the savannas of Maypures, and on a 

 visit to their camp I saw an old man grinding 

 Niopo seeds, and purchased of him his apparatus 

 for making and taking the snuff, which is now in 

 the Museum of Vegetable Products at Kew. I 

 proceed to describe both processes. 



The seeds being first roasted, are powdered on a 

 wooden platter, nearly the shape of a watch-glass, 

 but rather longer than broad (g-J inches by 8 inches). 

 It is held on the knee by a broad thin handle, which 

 is grasped in the left hand, while the fingers of the 

 right hold a small spatula or pestle of the hard 

 wood of the Palo de arco (Tecomae sp.) with which 

 the seeds are crushed. 



The snuff is kept in a mull made of a bit of the 

 leg-bone of the jaguar, closed at one end with pitch, 

 and at the other end stopped with a cork of inarima 

 bark. It hangs around the neck, and from it are 



