158 Morris .* — On the use of certain plants 
species of Aristolochia , where indeed the term is restricted 
to Aristolochia odoratissimu , L. 
Under the name of Guaco more than one plant in Central 
and South America has been credited with the power of 
curing snake-bites. The name is commonly used in regard 
to a member of the Compositae, Mikania Guaco , H. B. ; but 
here we have again a similar name applied, and the same 
powers ascribed to one or two local species of Aristolochia. 
Mikania Guaco is a widely diffused climbing shrub, found 
in the West Indies and from Nicaragua to Brazil. It is 
figured by Descourtilz in Flore des Antilles, t. 197, and by 
Humboldt and Bonpland, Plantae Aiquinoctiales, t. 105. It 
appears in Baker’s Monograph of the Brazilian Compositae, 
under the name of Mikania amara , var. Guaco. 
Mr. Robert B. White of La Salada, New Granada, in a 
communication to the Royal Gardens, Kew 1 , gives his per- 
sonal testimony in favour of Mikania Guaco as the true 
Guaco of tropical America. He states that ‘there are two 
varieties, one with green stems, the other called “ morado ” 
with purple, the latter being the most prized.’ There are 
several species of snakes in the country whose bite is deemed 
mortal, some of them killing in a very few hours, but Mr. 
White, who has lived in the Choco and other snake-in- 
fested regions many years, testifies that the Guaco, properly 
and promptly administered, is a cure for the bite of the most 
venomous. 
The name Guaco was used to establish a new genus of 
Aristolochiae, and Guaco mexicana , Liebm. was a plant of this 
genus which had the highest reputation as an antidote for 
snake-bites. This genus has not however been recognised 
in the Genera Plantarum of Bentham and Hooker. In the 
Kew Museums there are specimens of two species of Aris- 
tolochia known in the Bay of Honduras as Guaco. One of 
these, described by Mr. G. W. Skinner as the more powerful, 
is also used by the natives bound round their legs when they 
1 Pharm. Journ. vol. xi. (3.) p. 369. 
