LINAGE.^. 61 



cle TJmiri has an agreeable odour of beimne. It is used for the same 

 purpose as the resinous oil of Copahu. In Brazil the seeds of H. 

 obovata ^ are eaten, and ia Gabon the fi'uits of Djouga or H. (jobon- 

 ensis? Nothing is more open to controversy than the mode of 

 action of the Erythroxylons, of which the most celebrated is E. coca^ 

 (fig. 80-87), a Peruvian species, cultivated in a great part of South 

 America, especially in Columbia, Bolivia, and Brazil, for its leaves, 

 of which the consumption is such that the production in Bolivia and 

 Peru is valued at 15 millions of francs yearly. These leaves are 

 oval or oval-acute, entire, membranous, penninerved, about 4 

 centim. (1 inch) long, and remarkable as having a middle zone of a 

 darker colour than the rest of the limb seen on the inferior face 

 and limited by two curved lines parallel to the edges. Theii- active 

 priaciple is said to be cocaine, a crystallizable alcaloid, soluble in 

 alcohol and ether. The leaves are used iu preparing infusions, 

 decoctious, syrups, and have been reckoned, like tea, coffee, etc., 

 among those substances which preserve, or prevent waste in, the 

 tissues of the body. Then* action upon the nervous system has been 

 compared to that of wine. The natives use them alone, or mixed 

 with lime or tobacco, as a masticatory to sustain strength during 

 journeys, works of transport, agricultural laboui-, or when working 

 in mines, and can then support fatigue even when forced for 

 a long time to go without food or driuk. The plant is, moreover, 

 among certain Indians the object of a kind of superstitious worship, 

 and when chewed with tobacco produces a kind of intoxication 

 similar to that produced by haschisch. In Europe, the Coca has 

 been considered as assisting nutrition, as anpesthetic to the buccal 

 and stomachic mucous, as accelerating salivary, intestinal, and even 

 renal secretions ; as useful in cases of stomatitc, chi'onic quinsy, 

 and uric and scrofulous diathesis ; it has also been much valued 

 as a remedy for extreme embonpoiat, etc. From two years of age 

 the young stems of Coca yield a first harvest in the Andes, and each 



' Humirium obovatmn Mart, (ex Rosenth. Diet. Mat. M6d. iii. 148. — Guiis. Drag. Simpl, 

 he. cit.). ■ ed. 6, iii. 595.— Duch. Rep. 197.— Endl. En- 



" H. Bn. in Adansoina,x. 368. — Aubrya gabo- chirid. 659. — Hook. C'omp. to Jiot. Mng. i. 161 ; 



nensis H. Bn. in Adaiuoma, ii. 266.— Oliv. Fl. ii. 25, t. 21.— GossE, Moii. E. Cum (Bnix. 1832). 



Trap. Afr. i. 275. — Tr. et Pl. in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 4, x%nii. 338. 



' Lamk. Diet. ii. 393. — Cav. Bias. viii. 402, t. — Eosentu. Sijn. PI. Diophor. 775. — Kev. in 



229.— DC. Prodr. i. 676, n. 23.— Lindl. Fl. Fl. MM. dii XIX' Siecle, i. 356 (vulg, ITnyo, 



Med. 199; JVy. A'ingd. 391.— Meu. et Del. Ipadn). 



