RADIX SARSAPARILL.E. 705 



Doubt and confusion hang over the other species of Smilax which 

 have been quoted as the sources of sarsaparilla. S. syphilitica H.B.K., 

 with flowers in a i"aceme of umbels, discovered on the Cassiquiare 

 in New Granada, and well figured by Berg and Schmidt from an 

 authentic specimen, appears from Poppig's statements to yield some of 

 the sarsaparilla shipped at Para. But Kunth states that Poppig's plant, 

 gathered near Ega, is not that of Humboldt and Bonpland. Spruce, who 

 collected S. syphilitica (herb. No. 3779) in descending the Rio Negi-o in 

 1854, has informed us that the Indians in various places in the 

 Amazon valley always strenuously asserted it to be a species worthless 

 for " Salsa" 



S. papyracea, described by Poiret^ in 1804, and figured by Martins,^ 

 is but very imperfectly known. It has foliage resembling that of 

 S. officinalis, but, judging from Spruce's specimens (No. 1871) collected 

 on the Rio Negro, a inidtangular stem. It is probably the source of 

 the Pard Sarsaparilla. 



S. cordato-ovata Rich, is a doubtful plant, perhaps identical with 

 S. SchomhurgHana Knth., a Panama species. Poppig alleges that its 

 root is mixed with that of the plant which he calls S. syphilitica. 



S. Piirhanipuy Ruiz, a Peruvian species, said to afibrd a valuable sort 

 of sai-saparilla, is practically unknown, and is not admitted by Kunth.' 



No new information on the several above mentioned species of 

 Smilax is found in the review of this genus by A. and C. De CandoUe,* 

 where 105 American species are enumerated 



History — Monardes^ has recorded that sarsaparilla was first intro- 

 duced to Seville about the year 1536 or 1545, from New Spain ; and a 

 better variety soon afterwards from Honduras. He further narrates 

 that a drug of excellent quality was subsequently imported from the 

 province of Quito, that it was collected in the neighbourhood of Guaya- 

 quil, and was of a dark hue, and larger and thicker than that of Hon- 

 duras. 



Pedro de Ciezo de Leon, in his Chronicle of Peru,^ which contains the 

 observations made by him in South America between 1532 and 1550, 

 gives a particular account of the sarsaparilla which grows in the province 

 of Guayaquil and the adjacent island of Puna, and recommends the 

 sudorific treatment of syphilis, exactly as pursued at the present time. 



These statements are confirmed by the testimony of other writers. 

 Thus, Joao Rodriguez de Castello Branco, commonly known as Amatus 

 Lusitanus, a Portuguese physician of Jewish origin, who practised 

 chiefly in Italy, has left a work recording his medical experiences and 

 narrating cases of successful treatment." One of the latter concerns a 

 patient sufi*ering from acute rheumatism, for whom he finally prescribed 



^Lamarck, Encyclop^iem^hoclique,'Bot., * Pages 18 and 88 of the work quoted in 



vi. 1804. 468. the Appendix. 



2 Flor. Bras. i. (1842-71) tab. 1. ® Parte primera de la Chronica del Peru, 



'It must not be supposed that aZ^ species Sevilla, 1553, folio Ixix. — a translation for 



of Smilax are capable of furnishing the the Hakluyt Society in 1864, by Markham, 



drug. There are many, even South Ame- who observes that Cieza de Leon never 



rican, which like the S. aspeia of Europe, himself visited Guayaquil, 



have thin, ^ciry roots, which would never ' Curationum medicinalium centurice q»a- 



pass for medicinal sarsaparilla. tuor, Basileae. 1556. 365. 



* Monographice phanei-ogamarum, i. ( 1878) 

 fr-199. 



2y 



