228 LEGUMINOS^. 



Negi'O between Manaos and Barcellos (Spruce). According to Ben tham 

 it seems to be the same species as the C. bijuga of Hayne.^ 



3. G. conacea Mart. (C. cordifolia Hayne), a large tree found in the 

 caatvngas or diy woods of the Brazilian provinces of Bahia and 

 Piauhy, 



4. C. Langsdovffii Desf^ (C. nitida Hayne, C. Selloivii Hayne, ? C. 

 Jussieui Hayne), a polymorphous species, varying in the form and size 

 of leaflets, and also in dimensions, being either a shrub, a small bushy 

 tree, or a large tree of 60 feet high. Bentham admits, besides the type, 

 three varieties : — j3. glabra (0. glabra Vogel), y. grandifolia, S. laxa 

 (C. laxa Hayne). The tree grows on dry campos, caatingas and other 

 places in the provinces of S. Paulo, Minas Geraes, Goyaz, Mato Grosso, 

 Bahia and Ceara ; it is therefore distributed over a vast area. Accord- 

 ing to Gardner,^ the Brazilian traveller, it yields an abundance of 

 balsam. 



In addition to these species, must be mentioned a tree described by 

 Hayne and commonly cited under the name of Copaifera multijuga, as 

 a special source of the drug shipped from Para.* As its name implies, 

 it is remarkable for the number of leaflets (6 to 10 pairs) on each leaf 

 But it is only known from some leaves in the herbarium of Martins 

 which Bentham, who has examined them, informs us are unlike those 

 of any Copaifera known to him, though certainly the leaflets are dotted 

 with oil- vessels as in some species. In the absence of flowers and 

 fruits, there is no sufficient evidence to prove that it belongs even to 

 the genus Copaifera. It is not mentioned by Martins in his Systema 

 Mater ICE Medicce Brasiliensis (1843) as a source of the drug. 



History — Among the early notices of Brazil is a treatise by a 

 Portuguese friar who had resided in that country from 1570 to 1600. 

 The manuscript found its way to England, was translated, and was 

 published by Purchas^ in 1625. Its author notices many of the natural 

 productions of the country, and among others Cupayba which he de- 

 scribes as a large tree from whose trunk, when wounded by a deep 

 incision, there flows in abundance a clear oil much esteemed as a 

 medicine. 



Balsam. Copce. yvce is alread}- enumerated in the 6th edition of the 

 Pharmacopoea of Amsterdam, a.d. 1636." 



Father Cristoval d'Acuna,^ who ascended the Amazon from Para, 

 arriving at Quito in 1638, mentions that the country affords very large 

 Cassia fistula, excellent sarsaparilla, and the oils of Andirova {Carapa 

 guianensis Aublet, Meliacece), and Copaiba, as good as balsam for 

 curing wounds. 



Piso and Marcgraf,® who in 1636 accompanied the Count of Nassau 



^ Hayne (1827) enumerated and figured * " Alle Arten geben raehr oder weniger 



15 species, some of them founded on very Balsam, und den meisten giebt die in der 



imperfect materials. Bentham in the Flora Provinz Para vorkommende Copaifera 



jB?'a««7iana of Martius and Endlicher (fasc. multijuga." — Hayne, Zdnncea, i. (1826) 



50, Leguminosa, ii. 1870. pp. 239-244) ad- 429. 



mits only 11, one of which is doubtful as ^ Pilgrimes and Pilgrimage, Lond. iv. 



to the genus. (1625) 1308. 



- Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, Med. ^ Pharm. Jourv. vi. (1876) 1021. 



Plants, part 32 (1878) ; Langsdorffii, not <■ Nuevo Descubrlmiento del gran Rio de 



Lansdorffii, is to be written ; see Pharm. las Amazonas, Madrid, 1641, No. 30. 



Journ. ix. (1879) 773. ^ jjig(,_ j^at. Brasilice, 1648, Piso, 56, 



^ MS. attached to specimens in the Kew Marcgraf, 130. 

 Herbarium. 



