212 SMILAX SARSAPARILLA. 
in this country by Mr. Foster, in 1691.* It is a native of South 
America and Virginia, and grows wild on the borders of a lake on 
the north of the Cerra Unturan, near Esmeralda. We are told by 
Dr. Hancock, that " The Sarsa of the Rio Negro, which comes by 
way of Angustura, or of Parsa, is the best." f It appears that the 
roots of several species of Smilax are collected, almost indiscrimi- 
nately, by the natives, who are appointed to dig the genuine roots, 
for supplying the markets,! and this accounts for the inefficacy 
which is so often attributed to this drug. 
The root of this plant divides into many pedicels, which are 
somewhat thicker than a goose quill, straight, externally brown, in- 
ternally white, and three or four feet in length ; the stalks are 
shrubby, long, slender, scandent or trailing, and beset with spines ; 
the leaves are ovate, pointed, three-nerved, petiolate, and stand 
alternately, with long tendrils at the base ; the flowers are male and 
female upon different plants, and usually stand three or four together 
upon a common peduncle ; the calyx of the male flower is bell- 
shaped, divided into six oblong, spreading segments, which are 
reflexed at their points; the filaments are six, supporting oblong 
anthers ; the calyx of the female flower is similar to that of the 
male ; the germen is ovate, and supports three minute styles, fur- 
nished with oblong reflexed, hairy stigmas ; the fruit is a round three- 
celled berry, containing two globular seeds. 
The roots of sarsaparilla § are imported into this country iu their 
dried state, from the Spanish West Indies, packed in bales : it has 
also been imported from Jamaica ; and we are told by Humboldt, 
that nearly 5000 quintals are annually exported from Vera Cruz.|| 
In the London market it is known by the names of Honduras, Vera 
Cruz, Lisbon, &c.** It was first brought to Europe about the year 
1530, and introduced into Spain as a medicine of great efficaCy. 
* Vide Ilort. Kewensis. " , 
t Medico-Botanical Trans, part i. p. C3. 
Dr. Hancock says, " They acknowledged that, when the right sort was not found 
in plenty, they sometimes dug one or two others, which they esteemed to be nearly equal 
in quality." — Ed. 
§ The word sarsaparilla is of Spanish origin, from Zarza, a briar or bush, and 
Parilla, a little vine. 
II Polit. Essay, toI. ii, p. 442. , \ 
** The Honduras Sarsa has a whitish or dirty brown cuticle, and is more fibrous and 
has more ligneous matter than either the Lisbon or Vera Cruz. The Lisbon root, 
which is the produce of Brazil, has a reddish brown cuticle, is internally farinaceous ; 
the Vera Cruz is in long slender twigs, covered with a wrinkled brown cuticle,— Ed. 
