CALUMBA 37 



stead of African ports. Hence for a long time the 

 general impression prevailed that the plant was a native 

 of India, and that the capital of Ceylon (Colombo) 

 gave the drug its name. 



From about 1770, however, the suspicion that cal- 

 umba root was of African origin had been gaining 

 ground. In this year Philibert Commerson, a French 

 physician, collected a specimen of a certain plant grow- 

 ing in the garden of M. Poivre in the Isle de France, 

 which Lamarck in 1797 named Mehispermum palmatum, 

 stating that this menispermum (of which he described 

 the male plant only), perhaps yielded the root that is 

 brought to us from India under the name of calombo 

 or Colombo root. He adds, however, that "it seems to 

 be indigenous to India." 



In 1805 a distinct advance was made in establishing 

 its African origin. M. Fortin in this year brought the 

 root of a male calumba plant from Mozambique to the 

 city of Madras, where it was raised and cultivated by 

 Dr. James Anderson. From this specimen Dr. Berry 

 (63), in 1811, published a botanical description in the 

 "Asiatic Researches" in which he also gives definite 

 information regarding its origin and uses in its native 

 country. The Specimen was transported later by him 

 to the Calcutta Botanical Gardens. De Candolle in 

 1818 named the plant Cocculus palmatus. However, 

 the female plant remained still unknown. 



In 1825, Captain W. F. Owen brought a male and a 

 female plant from Oibo, in East Africa, to Mauritius, 

 where it was cultivated and observed by Bojer. From 

 this source, at last, Sir W. J. Hooker, (324), in 1830, 

 was enabled to describe the whole plant, both male and 

 female, under the name of Cocculus palmatus, Hooker. 



