C A L L I C O C C A. 



pendiciikr; fonietimes, but rarely, /liirhtly oblique; from 

 two to four inches long, or more ; flcndcr upwards, tlic 

 thickntfs and form of the ilem ; two or three lines thick 

 below, irregularly bent, brown without ; divided into nu- 

 merous prominent, unequal, fomewhat wrinkled rings ; of 

 an acrid, bitter tade, but foarcely any fmell ; when dry the 

 bark is thick, hard, brittle, brown without, white within, 

 of a gummy relinous nature, incloling a fmall, woody, 

 white, nearly inlipid, mucilaginous fibre, from which it is 

 eafily feparatcd into numerous rings, which are fuiooth at 

 their edges. Sum fomewhat Hirubby, firll procumbent, 

 then ercd, fometimes cretpi:.g at the bafc, round, about 

 the thickiicfs of a common quill ; fniooth and without leaves 

 - below, brown, and knotty with the fears of fallen leaves, the 

 intern>,des upwards gradually decreafing in length ; near the 

 top pnbefcent, green, lca'"y ; for a year or two fimple ; 

 then throwing out a few leaflets, rather crooked, knotty 

 runners, taking root irregularly at the knots, and producing 

 one or two new Hems about half a foot from each other. 

 Leaves from four to eight near the funviiit of the ftem, op- 

 pofite, fpreading, three or four inches long, one or two 

 broad, perfeftly entire ; deep green above and befprinkled 

 with roughifh points, fmooth, or rarely befct with a few 

 fcattered hairs ; und-rneath pale green, and fomewhat pu- 

 befcent ; with a ratlier elevated rib, and alternate, nearly 

 parallel, lateral veins curved at the end ; petioles (hort, 

 channelled, a little hairy. Stipules two, extrafoHaceous, 

 prefled clofe to the ftem, deeply cut into awl-fliaped divi- 

 fions, nightly adhering to the petioles, about equal to them 

 in length, and with them Ihcathmg the ftem, ftirivelling. 

 Flowers aggregate in a folitary head, pcduncled, terminal, 

 and a little drooping ; peduncle round, pubefcent, about 

 half an inch long ; florets felTile, from fifteen to twenty- 

 four, fcparated by chafi"y leaflets or brades ; braftes the 

 length of the involucrnm and florets, pubefcent, very 

 entire, feffile, green, varying in form, fometimes longifli- 

 egg fliaped, fometimes rather obtufely lanceolate, and 

 fometimes, but rarely, in fize and tigure refembling the 

 leaflets of the involucre. Involucre lonr-leafed ; leaflets a 

 little heart ftiaped, acute, entire, almoft lelfile, flightly waved, 

 hairy ; the two outer ones largeft, and all a little longer 

 than the florets. Calyx, perianth, fuperior, permanent, mem- 

 branous, white, v^ery (hort, with five blunt teeth. Corolla 

 monopetalous ; tube cylindrical, long, a little fwelling up- 

 wards, woolly about the throat ; border Ihortcr than the 

 tube ; with five egg-iliaped, acute, recurved fegments. 

 Stamens, filaments five, capillary, ftiort, inferted on the upper 

 part of the tube ; anthers oblong, linear, treft, proje>lting 

 beyond the top of the tube. Piftil, germ egg-fiiaped, not 

 angular ; llyle ihread-lhaped, the length of the tube, fur- 

 rouuded at the bafe with a ftiort, neftnnferous rim ; (ligmas 

 two, oblo' g, rather thick, blunt, the length of the anthers. 

 Pericarp, berry one-celled, with two feeds, roundifll, neither 

 furrowed nor angular, crowned with the calyx, purpliftx 

 red, foft, and finally becoming wrinkled and black. Thofe 

 wh-ch fall before they are ripe, when they grow dry, have 

 a fin 'te fu'TOW on each fide, occa'.ioned by the fcparation 

 of the feeds, as they lie with their flat fides towards each 

 other. Seeils two, elliptical, fmooth, a little twilled ; flat on 

 one fide, with a longitudinal, fomewhat elevated hue run- 

 nine dowu the middle ; convex on the other, with a furrow 

 near the apex. A native of moift woods in Pernambucco, 

 and otl er provinces of Brazil, flowering from November to 

 March, and ripening its berries in May. Defcribed by Fe- 

 lix Avcilar lirolero, profefibr of botany at Coimbra, with 

 the afliit.mce of obfervations made in Brazil on living plants, 

 by BtrnarJ Gomes, a refidenc medical botauift. It is 



called ipecacuanha by the natives in fome parts of Brazil ; 

 poaia d.) matto by th()fe of the fouthern provinces ; and 

 cipo by others, which is the name often given it by the 

 I'ortuguefe f ttLrs. 



Though tlie root of this pkint has been known in Europe 

 about 1 jo years, and has been in general ufe as a valuable 

 medicine nearly as long; and though figures of it were early 

 pubhihrd by I'ilo and Margiaavc, modern botanills have 

 known little of its botanical cliaraflcrs, and were long ui • 

 able to determine the genus to which it ought to be re- 

 ferred. Linnxus, in a paper publiflied in the third volume 

 of " Amenitales Acadeniicx," gave it as a trivial name to 

 a fpecies of Euphorbia, a native of Virginia and Carolina, 

 the root of which is there iifcd as an emetic; but this was 

 foon dilcovered not to be the real ipecacuan'i,;. In his fe- 

 coud MantilTa, he gave the fame trivial name to a fpecies of 

 Viola, a native of Brazil, the root of which he fuppoled to 

 be the white ipecacuanha of the ftiops. Decandollc, in a 

 paper publiftied in the " Bulletin des Sciences par la So- 

 ciete Pliilomatique," and rcpublifti^d entire in the " Nou- 

 vcau Diftionaire d'Hilloire Naturelle," fays, there are three 

 fpecies of Viola which produce the white ipecacuanha : the 

 calceolaria of the fpecies Plaiitarum, a native of Guiana and the 

 Antilles; the ipecacuanha of the Mantiffa, and ihe parvi^ora 

 of the Supplementum Plantarum, both natives of Brazil. 

 The roots of thefe, and efpecially the Lift, are fometimes 

 mingled in commerce with the true or brown ipecacuanha ; 

 but they area fraudulent adulteration, and do not polTefs its 

 atfive properties. They may be dillinguinied by their co- 

 lour ; but moft certainly by the fize of the v.uody part, 

 which in thefe is always confiderably thicker than the bark; 

 whereas, in the true ipecacuanha, it is much lefs ; and, as 

 defcribed by Brctero, is only a fibre (filum). The roots of 

 fome fpecies of Al'clepias, Cynanchum, Dorftcnia, and 

 Ruellia, have likewife received the name of ipecacuanha, on 

 account of their poffefTing fome of the fame qualities ; but 

 in this there is no deception, as they have been houeftly 

 called falfe or fpurious ipecacuanhas. 



Some time before the year i;Si, Mutis, then travelling 

 in South America, fent to the younger Linnaeus a defcrip- 

 tion formed from a fpecimen in full flower, which the go- 

 vernor of the province of Giroiig had received from Can- 

 naverale on the river Magdalena, and which an empiric of 

 the country, to whom it was ftiewn by Mutis, pofitively 

 afferted to be the genuine ipecacuanha, having frequently 

 gathered it in the neighbourhood of Simites, where it grows 

 wild in great abundance, and whence it is regularly fliipped 

 at Mompoxia, as an aiticle of commerce for Europe. From 

 this defcription, Linnaeus judgeel it to be a fpecies of Pfy- 

 chotria, a genus formed by his father for two or three 

 plants that arc natives of the Eaft and Weft Indies, and 

 publiftied it as fuch in t!ie " ^^upplementum Plantarum ;" 

 at the fame time cxprefTing a doubt whether it were really 

 the ipecacuanha of Pifo and Margraave ; but alfo adding, 

 that, from its refemblance to their figures, he was rather in- 

 clined to believe it the fame. 



In the year 1793, Dr. Woodville was favoured by fir 

 Jofeph Banks with a fpecimen preferred in fpirits, which 

 had been fent from Brazil. A drawing taken from it was 

 engraved and publiftied in his Medical Botany. It was 

 without a flower, but as its root was entire, there was no 

 doubt of its being the real plant. Its gtnus, however, ftill 

 remained in a ftate of uncertainty ; for Dr. Woodville was of 

 opinion that he could not " implicitly follow the authority 

 on which Mutis received the information." The lovers of na- 

 tural hillorvare, therefore, highly obliged to profeffor Brotero 

 for his fatisfadtory monograph on the fubjcd, read at a 



meeting 



