( 781 ) 



XXVI. — Remarks on the Ipecacuan Plant (Cephaelis Ipecacuanha, Rich.), as 

 cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. By John Hutton 

 Balfour, M.D., F.K.S., Sec. E.S.E., F.L.S., Hon. Mem. Pharm. Soc, 

 and Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Edinburgh. 

 (Plates XXXL, XXXII.) 



(Read IStli March and 3d June 1872.) 



The Ipecacuan plant, Cephaelis Ipecacuanha of Achille Richard, has been 

 cultivated in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden for upwards of forty years, but 

 it was not propagated to any extent until 1870, when a proposal was made to 

 attempt the cultivation of the plant in India. This suggestion was made on 

 account of the continued destruction of the plant by the collectors in Brazil, and 

 the risk of scarcity in the supply of this most valuable remedy for dysentery. 

 The Secretary of State for India (His Grace the Duke of Argyll), under the 

 recommendation of several medical officers in Bengal, authorised an attempt to 

 propagate the plant in our Indian possessions, and with that view application 

 was made to me and others to aid in this important undertaking. Accord- 

 ingly, I at once set about the propagation of the plant in the Edinburgh Garden, 

 with the assistance of Mr M'Nab the curator. He found that the plant could 

 be multiplied very rapidly by dividing the annulated root, cuttings of which, 

 though very small, give off young shoots when placed in favourable circum- 

 stances. By this means, numerous plants were produced very rapidly, and 

 the method was also followed by the Messrs Lawson, Nurserymen, Edinburgh, 

 who supplied a large stock of vigorous plants. Mr M'Nab drew up a report of 

 his mode of propagation, which was printed, and distributed extensively to 

 district officers in India and elsewhere. The paper also appeared in the Trans- 

 actions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. x. p. 318. 



In Plate XXXII. fig. 6, two portions of a root giving off leaf-buds are 

 shown. 



It appears from a report by Dr King, Director of the Calcutta Botanical 

 Garden, that in 1866 a single plant of Ipecacuan was received at the Calcutta 

 Garden from Dr Hooker, but apparently artificial propagation had been 

 attended with sparing success, as Dr King reported at the beginning of 1872 

 that " the only surviving offspring of the Kew plant amounted to five plants 

 in Sikkim, and seven in the Calcutta Garden." It is understood that cuttings 

 of the stem were planted, but not of the roots. When, however, the plan pro- 

 posed by Mr M'Nab was adopted for the propagation of the plant, much greater 



VOL. XXVI. PART IV. 9 S 



