NOTES ON SOME NEW OR LITTLE-KNOWN VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. 67 
Dr. J. Leon Soubeiran, in a note read before the Societe de Pharmacie de 
Paris, after noticing its habitat, observes :— 
“ The Indians say that the decoction or infusion of this plant, which is very bit¬ 
ter, is of great power in fevers; especially such as are intermittent or bilious ..... 
In the towns alcoholic tinctures, syrups, etc., prepared from this plant, are used by 
the physicians. Drs. Jameson and Gandara, of Quito, have employed it in nu¬ 
merous cases of fever with great success.”* * * § 
The fullest account I have met with respecting this plant is in a letter by Dr. 
Raphael Barahona (Physician to the Medical Hospital and Professor of Physio¬ 
logy in the University of Quito), quoted by Professor Jameson in a paper on 
the Composites of the Andes.f The paper is too long to repeat here, but Dr. 
Barahona gives, as the result of lengthened public and private practice, a very 
high character of the medical value of this plant. The Chuquiragua is a very 
abundant plant in South America, and grows up to the snow line on the Andean 
Mountains, its small glossy leaves of about J inch long, and its large, bright 
yellow composite flowers, rendering it a pretty object, which would look well in 
European gardens. The whole of the plant is very bitter, but the leaves seem 
to be the most powerful. The plant, at all events, deserves a chemical analysis. 
My specimens appear to be the var. microphylla of Chuquiraga insignis. 
Striated Ipecacuanha ( Psychotria emetica, Mutis).—Within the last few 
months, this kind of ipecacuanha has made its appearance in our markets, a few 
packages of it having been shipped from Bogota, in New Granada. It is not 
necessary here to give any detailed description of its characteristics, as it is 
easily distinguished from the roots of the true ipecacuanha ( Cepitaelis Ipecacu¬ 
anha , Richard) by being longitudinally striated, and having circular constric¬ 
tions or intersections at various distances; and from those of Richardsonia 
scabra , DC., by not having the jointed or undulated appearance noticeable in 
that species. However, the excellent figures of Dr. PereiraJ render it an easy 
matter to detect the differences between them. It is of no commercial value 
unless sold at a much lower price than the Cephaelis , or in the event of the sup¬ 
ply'of the latter falling short of the demand. It has been introduced with suc¬ 
cess by M. Hardy in Algeria.§ According to the published analysis of Pelletier 
it contains j} per cent, of emetine, but this seems too high. Professor Attfield, 
however, has examined it recently, and will no doubt communicate the result 
before long. 
Vegetable Tallow Seeds from Bombay ( Bassia latifolia , Roxb.).—Under 
the name of “ Vegetable Tallow Seeds,” there are at present eight or nine bags 
of what I find to be the cotyledons of the B. latifolia, Roxb., and from which a 
solid fat is extracted in large quantities in India. This tree is known in India 
under the names of ‘mahwah’ (Eng.), ‘poounum’ (Mai.), ‘ipie’ (Tel.), ‘moola’ 
(Hind.), ‘maliooa’ (Beng.), and many others, and is exceeding common and 
much valued, growing wild in many places, and also largely cultivated near 
villages, the flowers yielding by distillation a spirit largely consumed by the 
natives; and according to Dr. Gibson,|| no greater punishment can be threat¬ 
ened to the Bheel, or forest population, than to cut down their Bassia trees. In 
India the oil is used for various domestic purposes, in frying cakes by the poorer 
classes, but universally used for oil lamps, for which it is well adapted. It is 
also largely used for soap-making, and a paper is given by Mr. Hawkes on the 
* ‘ Journal de Pharmacie et de Cliimie,’ October, 1868, p. 303. 
f Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin. vol. ix. p. 115, March, 1867. 
X Mat. Med. vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 66, 1857. 
§ ‘ La Production Animale et Vegetale,’ p. 341 (La Societe Imperiale d’Acclimatation), 
Paris, 1867. 
ll Hooker’s Joum. Bot. 1853, p. 90. 
F 2 
