67 
they grow in, more or less in starch, are as much as ten feet long, and 
generally furnished with branched rootlets (beards). The plant itself 
is in every part glabrous, and averages fifty feet in length. The stem 
is quadrangular, furrowed or striated, and on the edges clad with flat 
prickles, which are occasionally curved upwards. The branches are, 
like the stem, quadrangular, or often multangular, and either with or 
without prickles. The petiole, sheathing at the base, is furnished with 
two spirally twisted tendrils, which are often ten inches long, and 
either with prickles or destitute of them. The leaves are extremely 
variable; at times they are broadly cordate, almost trilobed, gradually 
tapering into an acumen; at others they are ovate-oblong, and even 
lanceolate and rounded at the apex, but always mucronate ; they are 
generally 5-nerved, the two outermost nerves being mostly bifurcated, 
all the nerves being prominent on the under surface of the leaves, 
acutely edged and often furnished with prickles ; the colour of the 
leaves is dark green, the under surface being a shade paler than the 
upper, but never glaucous, like many other species of Smilax; the 
length of the leaves varies from two inches to one foot, and the breadth 
(at the base) from one to six inches; in thickness they vary conside- 
rably, being either coriaceous or more or less paper-like, and they 
have, moreover, in the latter case, transparent lineolar dots. ‘The 
peduncles are axillary and solitary, somewhat flattened, and they bear 
an umbella composed of about sixteen flowers. The flowers are still 
unknown. ‘The berries are round and red, and of the size of a 
small cherry, or even smaller than that. Each berry contains from 
two to three plano-convex seeds, of a light brown colour. 
Botanists, competent to judge of the true limits of species, are not 
likely to raise any objection to my uniting Smilax officinalis with S. 
papyracea and S. medica; but pharmacologists, unless supplied with 
the strongest proofs, will probably be disinclined to adopt the views I 
have advanced. They regard the different commercial sorts as essen- 
tially distinct from each other, and lay great stress upon certain cha- 
racters, which, however striking to a superficial observer, are of little 
or no importance, botanically speaking. For instance, the so-called 
Lisbon or Brazilian sarsaparilla, that which comes to us in rolls about 
three feet long, is chiefly distinguished by having fewer rootlets, or 
beards, than that termed “ Jamaica sarsaparilla;” and as the beards 
contain a great amount of matter for extract, it is on that account of less 
value in the market. But, if the roots of the Lisbon sarsaparilla are 
examined, it is plainly seen that the rootlets have been removed by 
some rough mechanical process, and that all the places where the 
