370 RUBIACE^. 



kiger has also appeared under the title Uebersicht der Ginchonen 

 von H. A. WeddelL Schaffhausen and Berlin, 1871, 8°. 43 pages, 

 with additions and indexes. 



RADIX IPECACUANHiE. 



Ipecacuanha Root, Ipecacuan ; F. Racine d' Ip>ecacuanha annelee ; 



G. Brechwurzel. 



Botanical Orgin — Cephaelis ^ Ipecacuanha A. Richard — This is a 

 small shrub, 8 to 16 inches high, with an ascending, afterwards erect, 

 simple stem, and somewhat creeping root, growing socially in moist 

 and shady forests of South America, lying between 8° and 22° S. lat., 

 especially in the Brazilian provinces of Para, Maranhao, Pernam- 

 buco, Bahia, Espiritu Santo, Minas, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo, 

 Within the last half century, it has been discovered in the vast interior 

 province of Matto Grosso, chiefly in that part of it which forms the 

 valley of the Rio Paraguay. From information given to Weddell,^ it 

 would seem probable that the plant extends beyond the frontiers of 

 Brazil to the Bolivian province of Chiquitos. 



The root which is brought into commerce is furnished chiefly by 

 the region lying between the towns of Guy aba. Villa Bella, Villa Maria, 

 and Diamantina in the province of Matto Grosso ; but to some extent 

 also by the woods in the neighbourhood of the German colony of Phila- 

 delphia on the Rio Todos os Santos, a tributary of the Mucury, north 

 of Rio de Janeiro. 



Prof. Balfour of Edinburgh, who has paid much attention to the 

 propagation of ipecacuanha, finds that the plant exists under two 

 varieties, of which he has published figures ; ^ they may be thus dis- 

 tinguished : 



a. Stem woody, leaves of firm texture, elliptic or oval, wavy at the 

 edges, with but few hairs on surface and margin. Long in cultivation : 

 origin unknown. 



b. Stem herbaceous, leaves less firm in texture, more hairy on 

 margin, not wavy. Grows in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro. 



The plant cultivated in India seems disposed to run into several 

 varieties, but according to the experience gained in Edinburgh, the 

 diversity of form apparent in young plants tends to disappear 

 with age. 



History — In an account of Brazil, written by a Portuguese friar, 

 who, it would seem, had resided in that country from about 1570 to 

 1600, and published by Purchas,* mention is made of three remedies for 

 the bloody flux, one of which is called Igpecaya or Pigaya ; the drug 

 here spoken of is probably that under notice. 



^ I am informed by my friend Professor , ^ Trans, of Roy. Sac. of Edinb. xxvi. 



Miiller of Geneva that in describing the (1872) 781. plates 31-32,— Fig. in Bentley 



Rubiaceje for the Flora Brasilierms he will and Trimen, Med. Plants, part 15 (1876), 



include Cephaelis Ipecacuanha in the genua * Purchas, His Pilgrimes, Lond. iv. 



Mapouria. — F.A.F, March 1879. (1625), — a treatise of Brasill, written by a 



* Ann. dea Sciences not. Bot, xi (1849) Portugall which had long lived there, p. 



193-202. , 1311. 



