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XXXVI. So)iie Account of the Curata, a Grass of the Tribe (f Bambuseae, 

 of the Culm of which the ludiaus of Guiu)ia prepare their Sarbacans or 

 Blowpipes. By Robert H. Schomburgk, Esq. Communicated by the 

 Secretary. 



Read December 17th, 1839. 



W HAT is the monocotyledonous plant that furnishes these admirable 

 reeds?" is the question asked by Baron Humboldt, after giving a description 

 of the species of reed, of which the Indian Sarbacans or blowpipes are made. 

 " Did we see, in fact," he continues, " the internodes of a grass of the tribe of 

 Nastoidœ ? or may this reed be a Cyperaceons plant, destitute of knots ? — I 

 cannot solve this question 1 " 



Nearly forty years have passed since this great traveller visited Esmeralda, 

 and observed one of the four canoes which had taken the Indians to the 

 gathering of the Jnvias (the fruits of Bertholletia excelsa) filled in great part 

 with this remarkable reed; and the interval has elapsed without botanists 

 receiving any further information on this interesting subject. No wonder, 

 therefore, tliat next to the plant which furnishes the active principle of the 

 famous Urari or Wurali poison, the discovery of the reed by means of wliich 

 the Indian is enabled to send his poisoned arrow with so much precision into 

 his intended victim, should have been a point of the greatest interest to me. 



During the first of the expeditions which were undertaken in the interior 

 of Guiana, I was fortunate enough to discover at the Cannucu mountains 

 the plant of the bark of which the Indians make their Urari poison, and 

 established without doubt that it is a species of Strychnos, which I named 

 Strychnos toxifera. But in answer to all my questions to the Indians as 

 to the locality from whence they procured the reeds that play such an im- 

 portant part in the construction of the blowpipe, they merely pointed to the 

 west, and gave me to understand that it was far away. The value which the 

 Indians of Guiana set upon these reeds, and the uncertainty from whence 



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