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RADIX CALUMB.^. 23 



MENISPERMACE^. 

 RADIX CALUMBiE. 



Radix Columba; CaluTnba or Colombo Root ; F. Racine de Colombo ; 

 G. Kalumbaiuurzel, ColiimbowiLvzel. 



Botanical Origin — Jatearhiza pcdmata Miers^ a dioecious perenuial 

 plant, with large fleshy roots and herbaceous annual stems, climbing 

 over bushes and to the tops of lofty trees. The leaves are of large size 

 and on long stalks, palmate-lobed and membranous. The male flowers 

 are in racemose panicles a foot or more in length, setose-hispid at least 

 in their lower part, or nearly glabrous. The whole part is more or less 

 hispid with spreading setae and glandular hairs. 



It is indigenous to the forests of Eastern Africa between Ibo or Oibo, 

 the most northerly of the Portuguese settlements (lat. 12° 28' S.), and 

 the banks of the Zambesi, a strip of coast which includes the towns of 

 Mozambique and Quilimane. Kirk found it (1860) in abundance at 

 Shupanga, among the hills near Morambala, at Kebrabasa and near 

 Senna, localities all in the region of the Zambesi. Peters' states that 

 on the islands of Ibo and Mozambique the plant is cultivated. In the 

 Kew Herbarium is a specimen from the interior of Madagascar. 



The plant was introduced into Mauritius a century ago in the time 

 of the French governor Le Poivre, but seems to have been lost, for after 

 many attempts it was again introduced in 1825 by living specimens 

 procured from Ibo by Captain Owen.^ It still thrives there in the 

 Botanical Garden of Pamplemousses. 



It was taken from Mozambique to India in 1805 and afterwards 

 cultivated by Roxburgh in the Calcutta Garden, where however it has 

 long ceased to exist. 



History — The root is held in high esteem among the natives of 



^ Synonyms — Menispermum palmatum nearly glabrous ; while in J. Calumha, the 



Lamarck, Cocculmpalmatus DC, Menisper- basal lobes are roiinded, but do not overlap, 



■mum Columba Roxb., Jateorhiza Calumha and the male inflorescence is setose-hispid 



Miers, J. Miersii Oliv., Chasmanthera ("sparsely pilose" Miers). On careful 



Columba Baillon. As we thus suppress a examination of a large number of speci- 



species admitted in recent works, it is ne- mens, including those of Berry from Cal- 



cessary to give the following explanation. cutta, and others from Mauritius, Mada- 



Menispermum palmatuvi of Lamarck, first gascar, and the Zambesi, together with 



described in the Encyclopidie m^thodique in the drawings of TeKair and Roxburgh, and 



1797 (iv. 99), was divided by Miers into the published figures and descriptions, I 



two species, Jateorhiza palmata and J. am convinced that the characters in ques- 



Calumba. Oliver in his Flora of Tropical tion are unimportant and do not warrant 



Aj'rica, i. (1868) 42, accepted the view the establishment of two species. In this 



taken by Miers, but to avoid confusion view I have the support of Mr. Home of 



abolished the specific name palmata, sub- Mauritius, who at my request has made 



stituting for it that of Miersii. At the careful observations on the living plant 



same time he noticed the close relation- and found that both forms of leaf occur on 



ship of the two species, and suggested that the same stem. — D. H. 



further investigation might warrant their * Reise nach Mossambique, Botanik i. 



union. The characters supposed to dis- (1862) 172. 



tinguish them inter se are briefly these : — 3 Hooker, Bot. Mag. Ivii. (1830) tabb. 



In J, palmata, the lobes at the base of the 2970-71. 

 leaf overlap, and the male inflorescence is 



