277 



the same family of plants with vegetable poisons, 

 and antidotes against the venom of reptiles. As 

 a great number of tonics and narcotics are anti- 

 dotes more or less active, we find these in fami- 

 lies very different* from each other, in the aris- 

 tolochiae, the apocyneae, the gentianse, the 

 polygalae, the solaneae, the composite, the mal- 

 vaceae, the drymyrhizese, and, which is still 

 more surprising, even in the palm-trees. 



In the hut of the Indian, who had been dan- 

 gerously bitten by a viper, we found balls two or 

 three inches in diameter of an earthy and im- 

 pure salt, called chivi, which is prepared with 

 great care by the natives. At Maypures a con- 

 ferva is burnt, which is left by the Oroonoko on 

 the neighbouring rocks, when, after high swell- 

 ings, it again enters it's bed. At Ja vita a salt is 

 fabricated by the incineration of the spadix and 

 fruit of the palm-tree seje or chimu\. This fine 

 palm-tree, which abounds on the banks of the 

 Auvana, near the cataract of Guarinuma, and 



* I shall mention as examples of these nine families ; aristo- 

 lochia anguicida, cerbera thevetia, ophiorhiza mungos, poly- 

 gala senega, nicotiana tabacum, (one of the remedies most 

 used in Spanish America), mikania guaco, hibiscus abelmos- 

 chus (the seeds of which are very active), lampujum rumphii, 

 and kunthia montana (Canna de la Vibora). Nov. Gen., 

 vol. i, p. 303. 



"t See above, p. 152. At the Rio Negro a salt is ob^ 

 tained from the spathe of another palm-tree, called chiquU 

 chiquL 



