292 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
and the impossibility of immediately supplying the demand, has probably led to 
the recent large importation of the leaves of another plant under the same name; 
and the object of this paper is, more especially, to direct attention to, and to de¬ 
scribe that substance. 
My attention was first called to this matico about six weeks since, in conse¬ 
quence of receiving from a well-known herbalist, in extensive business in London, 
a sample of a drug which had been recently imported, and which consisted of dried 
broken leaves, some small pieces of branches, and a few spikes of flowers. I 
was requested to inform him as to its nature, and the name of the plant which 
yielded it. Upon examination, I saw directly, from the odour and botanical 
characteristics of the drug that it had been derived from a plant of the Order 
Piperacea;, and most probably from a species of the same genus as that yield¬ 
ing the officinal matico. Further examination clearly exhibited that my first 
conjecture was correct, and that it had been obtained from a species of Artanthe. 
Upon further inquiry I found that some genuine matico, and some of the pre¬ 
sent drug also under the name of matico, had recently arrived in the ‘ St. Thomas, 7 
from Colon, a port situated at the terminus of the Panama railroad, on the 
Atlantic side. The drug had been consigned to a merchant in this city, 
and was afterwards offered for sale as matico, by a highly respectable firm 
of brokers. The respectability of all the parties concerned in this country, 
and elsewhere, who had knowledge of the transaction, and the public man¬ 
ner in which the drug had been offered for sale, showed that no fraud was 
intended, but that it was supposed to be, either true matico ; or a substance 
allied to, and analogous in its properties to that drug, and probably known in 
the district from whence it had been forwarded under the same name. 
Having now got a clue to the botanical and geographical source of the new 
drug, I went to the British Museum, where every opportunity was kindly 
afforded me by Mr. Carruthers of consulting the necessary books upon, and the 
dried specimens of, the different species of Artanthe which were preserved 
in the Museum collections. As there are nearly two hundred species of this 
genus, natives of the West Indies and of Central and South America, 
described by Miquel, the standard authority of the Order Piperacece ;* and 
from the fact of my only having some broken leaves, and a few small pieces 
of the branches and flower-spikes, for examination and identification, the 
task, as may be supposed, was by no means an easy one. At first, I thought 
from its having arrived with some genuine matico, and also from the re¬ 
semblance it bore to a specimen in the Museum collection, marked Artanthe 
elongata , Miq., which was stated to be derived from South America, and 
obtained from Pavon’s Herbarium, that it might be like true matico, also 
obtained from Artanthe elongata. Its marked difference from ordinary com¬ 
mercial matico, however, and a more minute examination, were opposed to this 
supposition. I then carefully compared my specimen with the other dried spe¬ 
cimens of Artanthe in the Museum, and after a minute critical examination 
and comparison with them, I came to the conclusion that it corresponded most 
nearly with that marked Artanthe aduncci , Miq. Further examination of 
Miquel’s ‘Systema Piperacearum,’ as well as the works of Jacquin, Ruiz et 
Pavon, and of other authors which refer to the botanical characters and geo¬ 
graphical sources of Artanthe adunca , have satisfied me, so far as it is possible 
for me to be so, from the examination of the imperfect specimens in my pos¬ 
session, that this new kind of matico is derived either from one of Miquel’s 
varieties of Artanthe adunca , or from a species very nearly allied to it, and 
which can only be determined satisfactorily by the examination of more perfect 
specimens than those in my possession. I believe, however, that the species 
yielding it will turn out to be Artanthe adunca. 
* Miquel’s c Systema Piperacearum.’ 
