446 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
empacho (to loosen the indigestion). Rubbing with 
a dry hand is still better, and for lumbago and other 
forms of rheumatism has sometimes an excellent 
effect. There are persons who, by long practice, 
acquire what is called "a good hand," and are much 
sought after as sobadores or shampooers. 
Nervous Stimtilants used by the Indians 
Several plants are used in South America as 
nervous stimulants, and all are more or less narcotic. 
Of these, the foremost place must be assigned to 
Erythroxylon Coca (Lam.) — Coca of the Peruvians, 
Ipadii of the Brazilians. Of its use in Peru, chiefly 
by miners and cargueros, Poeppig has already given 
an excellent account. There the entire leaf is 
chewed, with a small admixture of lime. But in 
North Brazil, where also its use is almost universal, 
I have always seen it used in powder. The plant 
itself, a slender shrub, with leaves not unlike tea- 
leaves, except that they are entire at the margins, 
is frequently planted near houses. In Peru, as is 
well known, there are large plantations of it, called 
cocales. I have gathered it truly wild on the 
rocky banks of the Rio Negro, near Tomo in 
Venezuela (hb. 3565) ; and an Erythroxylon {E. 
cataractaruni, n. sp. hb. 2614), which I found grow- 
ing abundantly on rocks in the cataracts of the 
Paapuris, a tributary of the Uaupes, which has 
small dark -green leaves only an inch and a half 
long, is considered by Mr. Bentham a variety of 
the same species. 
In January 185 1 I saw ipadii prepared and used 
on the small river Jauauari, near the mouth of the 
