47 
The Brazilian plant is variable in habit, and the Cartagena or 
Colombian variety is distinct and of less commercial value. 
R. DERRY. 
Mr. R. IT. True (Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture) has been supplied with the following informa- 
tion from the American Consul at Cartagena regarding the cultivation 
of Ipecacuanha, and this we publish from the “Oil Paint and Drug 
Reporter” Ipecac, a trailing plant thrives best in clay soil along the 
banks of rivers. While it requires a great deal of moisture, it cannot 
live under water, and consequently in Colombia it is found in its best 
development in regions where the rainfall is abundant, but where the 
rivers do not overflow. 
The Sinu River is the ideal region for ipecac. The plant is 
found in abundance from near the head-waters of this river . . . 
The growth extends to a distance of several miles on each side of the 
river and also to the more important tributaries of the Sinu, the 
Esmeralds, Verde and Manso rivers. In regions where the water is 
excessive, such as the valleys of the Atrato, the plant though found, 
has a poor growth and is of an inferior quality. In gathering ipecac 
the whole plant is up-rooted and the thin and soft rootlets are thrown 
away, and these discarded rootlets serve as a means of reproduction, 
becoming in a year well-developed plants having valuable roots of 
their own. The present demand for ipecac is good, for the average 
price in Cartagena is about $l.8o per lb. and $2.20 per lb. can be 
obtained in some of the foreign markets for the dry roots. The 
European demand is especially strong. France paying from ioc. to 
20c. more than can be obtained in the United States. The total 
shipment of ipecac from this port during the calendar year 1910 
amounted to 14,181 kilos. The area from which Cartagena ipecac 
is derived is very extensive and somewhat scattered, though by 
far the most important region is that of the Sinu River and its 
tributaries. It is thought that the land actually covered by the plant 
must embrace several hundred square miles, though any attempt at 
an accurate estimate would be useless. A relatively small amount 
of Cartagena ipecac comes from the Atrato, and it is of inferior 
quality. In addition to the two regions mentioned, there is still 
another, nearer than either of them to Cartagena, called San Onafre. 
Ipecac is not an object of cultivation in Columbia, though there is 
no reason why it should not be, except the fact that it is found wild 
in such abundance.” 
(The Chemist and Druggist , Feb. 24, 1912, p. 78'. 
CALABAR BEAN. 
(Physostigma Venenosum). 
A plant allied to the runner-beans (Phaseolus) and native of 
Nigeria and the Congo where it is used as an ordeal, but owing to its 
poisonous properties the production has been discouraged.' 
