67 PAULLINIA SORBILIS 



botli as a remedial agent and for the preparation of a most 

 refreshing as well as nutritive beverage. It is also frequently 

 mixed with, articles of diet, as cassava. The beverage is com- 

 monly prepared by adding about a teaspoonful of guarana to a glass 

 or cupful of sweetened water ; it is said that travellers in Brazil 

 commonly carry it with them, and use it as a substitute for tea. 



As a medicine it has been highly recommended in diar- 

 rhoea, nervous headache, neuralgia, paralysis, irritation of the 

 urinary passages, and various other affections. But the results 

 obtained by its use in this country are at present very conflicting. 

 It may be administered in substance, or in the form of a beverage 

 as above, or mixed with chocolate, or probably, as alcohol is said 

 to extract all its virtues, the best form of administration would 

 be as an alcoholic extract. It should not be employed in cases 

 where there is a determination of blood to the head, or in 

 plethoric conditions of the bowels. 



Martius, in Buchner's Report d. Pharm., xxxi (1829), p. 370; 

 Gavrelle sur une nouvelle Substance Medicinale, Paris, 1829 ; 

 Mart., Mat. Med. Brazil, p. 59, 1843; Fournier, in Journ. de 

 Pharrn., ser. 2, xxxix, p. 291 ; Hooker's Lond. Jl. Bot. (1851), 

 p. 194; Ritchie, in Monthly Journ. Med. Science, 1852, p. 465; 

 Ph. Jl., vol. xvi, ser. 1, p. 213 ; U. S. Disp., by W. & B., p. 1670. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE. 



Drawn from a specimen in the British Museum collected by Spruce near the 

 Rio Uaupes, Brazil, in 1852-3 (no. 2055). A leaf and flower-panicle. 1. 

 Vertical section of flower. 2. A petal. 3. Vertical section of the same to 

 show the appendage. 4. Fruit. 5. A fruit with one valve removed to show 

 the seed. This specimen was of somewhat unusual form ; the usual shape of 

 the seed is shown in the woodcuts below. (13 enlarged.) 



