NY M PH TEACH Al. 
17 
De Candolle, in his System, takes no notice of what is described 
here, as also by Swartz, as a nectary. 
c 2. Cissampelos microcarpa. Woolly Pareira , or 
Velvet leaf. 
Leaves sub-peltate orbiculate subreniform tomen- 
tose beneath, berries at first pubescent afterwards 
glabrous . — De Cand. 
Yar. (3. C. Pareira, Swurtz , Obs. 380. — Browne, Jam. 557. 
— C. microcarpa, De Cand. Syst. I. 
HAB. Plains and lower hills, where the white limestone pre- 
vails. 
FL. February — July. 
Stem villous. Leaves pubescent above, and villoso-toinen- 
tose beneath. — £ Racemes occasionally shorter, bat usually 
longer than the leaf. In every other respect, this plant agrees 
with the preceding species. This may therefore be considered 
as merely a variety of the c. pareira. 
The juice of the leaves of the Pareira-brava, according to Piso, 
is employed by the Brazilians as a remedy against the bite of 
serpents. Sloane mentions that the leaves may be used, beat up 
into a pulp, as an application to sores. The root, which is black, 
stringy, of the thickness of that of Sarsaparilla, and runs super- 
ficially under the surface of the ground, has long been employed 
in medicine. It has an agreeable bitter taste, and has the cha- 
racter of being diuretic and alterative. It is prescribed in 
dropsy, dysury, urinary calculus, jaundice, gout, and cutaneous 
diseases. The infusion is recommended to be drunk freely during 
the irritable stage of gonorrhoea, and is also employed as a ve- 
hicle in the administration of other medicines, where we wish 
a mild grateful bitter to be combined with the principal indica- 
tion. It has also been found useful in pulmonary complaints. 
“ I knew a Physician," says Barham, “ perform great cures on 
consumptive persons, who told me that his remedy was only a 
syrup made of the leaves and root of this plant, for which he 
had a pistole a bottle.” The analysis of M. Feneulle (Journal 
de Pharmacie, VII. 404) gives as its composition a resin, a 
yellow bitter principle, another brown principle, fecula, an ani- 
mal substance, and different salts. It may be administered in 
doses of a scruple to a drachm of the powdered root, or a wine 
glassful 3 times daily of the infusion of an oz. of the root to a 
pint of boiling water. 
ORDER VIII. NYMPILEACE.E 
Sepals and petals numerous, imbricated, passing 
c 
