SMILACEJE. 



1270. S. Sarsaparilla Linn. sp. pi 1459. Woodv. t. 62. 

 S. glauca Michx.fl. bor. am. ii. 237. Southern States of the 

 American Union. 



If the North American plant is to be taken for what Linnaeus in- 

 tended by this name, I can find no good authority for its furnishing 

 any part of the Sarsaparilla of commerce. Nothing is known in the 

 United States of its possessing any medicinal properties, and it is pro- 

 bable that the opinion of its being the source of the drug has originated 

 in some mistake. 



1271. Smilax Purhampuy Ruiz memoria sobre las virtudes, 

 Sfc. de Purhampuy, p. 65. Very abundant among bushes and 

 trees in the mountain-woods of Panao, Chaclla, Muna, Pillao, 

 Pozuzo, and Acomayo, in Peru, flowering in October and No- 

 vember. 



Stem climbing, prickly, nearly round. Leaves large, unarmed, cor- 

 date, ovate, acute, and acuminate, 5-nerved. Flowers from 6 to 10 on 

 globose receptacles, umbellate, yellowish green. The roots of this 

 species are highly extolled by Ruiz, who calls it China Peruviana, as 

 one of the very best kinds of Sarsaparilla. Is it not the same as 

 S. officinalis ? 



1271 1 a. S. medica Schlecht. in Linncea vi. 47 Mexico. 



Stem angular, armed with straight aculei at the joints, and with a few 

 hooked ones in the intervals. Leaves of the texture of paper, bright 

 green on each side, smooth, cordate, auriculate, shortly acuminate, 

 5-nerved, with the veins of the underside prominent ; in form they are 

 very variable, being ovate, somewhat panduriform, auriculate, and 

 somewhat hastate, with the lobes of the base obtuse, sometimes obso- 

 lete, sometimes divaricating ; their edge not straight, but as if irregularly 

 crenate ; petioles and midrib armed, when old, with straight subulate 

 prickles. Peduncles varying in length from 3 lines to an inch and more. 

 Umbel about 12-flowered, with the pedicels about 3 lines long. This 

 is undoubtedly the species that produces the Vera Cruz Sarsaparilla. 

 Schiede who found it on the eastern slope of the Mexican Andes, says 

 it is carried from the villages of Papantla, Tuspan, Nautla, Misantla, &c. 

 to Vera Cruz, under the name of Zarzaparilla, and is there introduced 

 into the European market. He was told that the roots are gathered 

 all the year long, dried in the sun, and then tied in bundles for sale. 

 Linncea, iv. 576. 



1272. S. siphilitica Willd. sp. pi iv. 780. HBK. n. g. et 

 sp. pi i. 271. Woods of tropical America, on the banks of the 

 river Cassiquiare, between Mandavaca and San Francisco 

 Solano. 



Stem round, smooth, furnished only at the knots with 2-4 short, 

 thick, straight, prickles. Leaves a foot long, oblong-lanceolate, coria- 

 ceous, shining, acuminate, 3-nerved, terminated by a long point. In 

 South America a kind of Sarsaparilla is produced by the roots of this, 

 which is held in the highest estimation. Martius is said to have found 

 it in the Brazils, at Yupura, and by the Rio Negro. According to Mr. 

 Pereira this yields Lisbon or Brazilian Sarsaparilla. 



598 



