914 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1068 



tern. These showed most interesting plant types 

 of the high mountains near Li Chiang at an ele- 

 vation of 10,000 to 17,000 feet. Especially strik- 

 ing was a new Primula, first discovered a few 

 years ago, with a spiked inflorescence which more 

 resembles an orchid than a Primula. It has been 

 named P. Littoniana. The buds are of a dark 

 purple, while the open flowers are colored. A very 

 peculiar plant of biological interest is a new 

 Saussurea, which inhabits limestone boulders at 

 about 17,000 feet and has the flowers hidden 

 among the leaves, which are densely hairy and 

 protect them from snow and frost. The virgin 

 forest of the Li Chiang zone consists of Pinus 

 Massoniana, various Piceas, Abies Velavaya, 

 Tsiiga Yminanensis, evergreen oaks, many Rhodo- 

 dendrons and numerous other shrubs and herbs. 

 The cryptogamic flora is also very rich. Dr. 

 Schneider has collected over 3,000 different species 

 of phanerogams and ferns. 



The Genus Endothia: Dr. N. E. Stevens. 

 To be published in full elsewhere. 



Endothia Pigments: De. Lon A. Hawkins. 



To be published in full elsewhere. 

 Identification of the Teonanacatl, or "Sacred 



Mushroom" of the Aztecs, with the Narcotic 



Cactus, Lophophora WilUamsii, and an Account 



of its Ceremonial Use in Ancient and Modern 



Times: Mk. W. E. Safford. 



The early Spanish writers describe certain feasts 

 of the Aztecs in which a narcotic called by them 

 teonanacatl, or "sacred mushrom" was used as 

 an intoxicant. Bernardino Sahagun, writing be- 

 fore 1569, states that it was the Chiehimeca In- 

 dians of the north who first discovered the proper- 

 ties and made use of these "evil mushrooms 

 which intoxicate like wine." Hernandez distin- 

 guishes them from other mushrooms {nanaoame, 

 plural of nanacatl) which are used as food, by 

 the distinguishing adjective teyhuinti, inebriating, 

 " quoniam inehrare solent.'' The belief survives 

 that the drug thus used was a mushroom; accord- 

 ing to Eemi Simgon, the teonanacatl is "une 

 esp6ce de petit champignon qui a mauvais gout, 

 enivre et cause des halluciations. ' ' i Investi- 

 gations of the author have proved that the drug in 

 question is not a fungus but a small fleshy spine- 

 less cactus endemic on both sides of the Eio Grande 

 in the vicinity of Laredo, Texas, and in the state 

 of Coahuila, ranging southward to the states of 

 Zaeatecas, San Luis Potosi, and QuerStaro, a re- 

 gion inhabited in ancient times by the tribes 



i"Diet. de la laugue Nahuatl," p. 436, 1885. 



called Chichimecas. The drug is prepared in two 

 principal forms: (1) discoid, in which the head of 

 the plant is cut off transversely, and when dried 

 bears a close resemblance to a mushroom; (2) in 

 longitudinal pieces or irregular fragments, in 

 which the entire plant, including the tap root, is 

 sliced longitudinally into strips, like a radish or 

 parsnip, bearing no resemblance whatever to a 

 mushroom, and designated by early writers as 

 peyotl, and also as raie diabolica, or "devil's 

 root. ' ' 



The first to call attention to the ceremonial or 

 religious use of this drug by the Indians of to- 

 day was Mr. James Mooney, of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, in a paper read before the 

 Anthropological Society of Washington, November 

 3, 1891. Since the time of Mr. Mooney 's observa- 

 tions the use of the drug has spread widely 

 among the Indians of the United States, by whom 

 it is commonly called "mescal button" or 

 "peyote. " 



Efforts have been made to prevent the Indians 

 from using it, chiefly because it is believed by 

 some of those interested in the Christianizing of 

 the Indians that it has a tendency to make them 

 revert to their primitive condition and to their 

 heathen beliefs. Action was taken in the courts to 

 prosecute a certain Indian for furnishing this drug 

 to the Indians of the Menominee Reservation of 

 Wisconsin on March 15, 1914. It developed that 

 the drug was received by parcel post from the 

 vicinity of Laredo, Texas. In a paper before the 

 Lake Mohonk Conference in October, 1914, affi- 

 davits of certain Indians of the Omaha and 

 Winnebago tribes of the Nebraska reservation 

 were read. The evidence showed that there is a 

 religious organization among the Indians called 

 the ' ' Sacred Peyote Society, ' ' the ceremonial 

 meetings of which are remarkably like those of 

 the ancient Mexicans in which the "sacred mush- 

 room" was eaten; and the physiological effects, as 

 described by those partaking of the drug, were 

 identical with those attributed by the early 

 writers to the teonanacatl. The chemical proper- 

 ties of the drug have been studied in Germany 

 and the United States, especially by Lewin, of 

 Berlin, Heffter, of Leipsic, and the late Erviu E. 

 Ewell, of the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture; and the physiological ef- 

 fects by Drs. D. W. Prentiss and Francis P. Mor- 

 gan, of Washington, D. C; but it is not possible 

 to give the detailed results of these investigations 

 in the scope of the present paper. 



As far as the author knows, this is the first 



