446 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



empacho (to loosen the indigestion). Rubbing with 

 a dry hand is still better, and for lumbago and other 

 forms of rheumatism has sometimes an excellent 

 effect. There are persons who, by long practice, 

 acquire what is called "a good hand," and are much 

 sought after as sobadores or shampooers. 



Nervous Stimulants used by the Indians 



Several plants are used in South America as 

 nervous stimulants, and all are more or less narcotic. 

 Of these, the foremost place must be assigned to 

 Erythroxylon Coca (Lam.) Coca of the Peruvians, 

 Ipadu of the Brazilians. Of its use in Peru, chiefly 

 by miners and cargueros, Poeppig has already given 

 an excellent account. There the entire leaf is 

 chewed, with a small admixture of lime. But in 

 North Brazil, where also its use is almost universal, 

 I have always seen it used in powder. The plant 

 itself, a slender shrub, with leaves not unlike tea- 

 leaves, except that they are entire at the margins, 

 is frequently planted near houses. In Peru, as is 

 well known, there are large plantations of it, called 

 cocales. I have gathered it truly wild on the 

 rocky banks of the Rio Negro, near Tomo in 

 Venezuela (hi). 3565) ; and an Erythroxylon (E. 

 cataractaruiu, n. sp. hb. 2614), which I found grow- 

 ing abundantly on rocks in the cataracts of the 

 Paapuris, a tributary of the Uaupes, which has 

 small dark -green leaves only an inch and a half 

 long, is considered by Mr. Bentham a variety of 

 the same species. 



In January 1851 I saw ipadii prepared and used 

 on the small river Jauauari, near the mouth of the 



