BOTANIC GARDEN. 
19 
of this work, I shall have occasion to show, that the Camellia sasan- 
qua is not the oil plant of the Chinese. The Cactus opuntia, which 
was formerly cultivated in this garden for the purpose of rearing the 
Cochineal insect, is now altogether neglected. 
The Ipecacuanha plant of the Brazils grows in great quantity in 
the woods in the neighbourhood of the Botanic Garden, whence 
it is collected by the country people for the market. I lamented 
much, that the shortness of my stay at Bio di Janeiro prevented my 
obtaining this plant, of which so many confused accounts have 
been given. The difficulty of determining the plants producing the 
Ipecacuanha of commerce, appears to have been occasioned by the 
supposition, that it is entirely derived from one species ; whereas 
there can be no doubt that it is afforded by two at least of different 
genera. A short history of the descriptions given of these by various 
writers, will perhaps be decisive in showing from what plants it is all 
obtained. 
Piso and Margraave were the first who described the Ipecacuanha 
plant of the Brazils, but neither their figures nor descriptions were 
sufficiently precise to determine its genus. In 1781, Linnaeus pub- 
lished a description which he had received from Mutis, governor of 
Santa Fe, of the Ipecacuanha plant of New Spain, under the genus 
Psychotvia . * In 1801, a complete monograph of the Ipecacuanha 
plant of the Brazils was published by Brotero f, at Lisbon, 
from specimens furnished to him by Bernardino Antonio Gomez, 
who accompanied them by a dissertation on the characters, pro- 
perties and culture of the plant. It was named by these authors 
Callicocca ipecacuanha. The plant of Gomez and Brotero has since 
been confounded with that of Mutis : in other words, the Psychotvia 
emetica of Linnaeus, and the Callicocca Ipecacuanha of Brotero, 
have been referred to the same plant X by Persoon, who has described 
* Linn. Supplem. Plant, p. 144. f Memoria sobre A. Ipecacuanha Fusca, p. 57. 
% Persoon, Synopsis, p. 203. 
* D 2 
