461 
ON THE BOTANICAL ORIGIN OF SAVANILLA RHATANY. 
of the root being there dug for export. The road lay up the bottom of the 
valley, following the course of the stream the whole way. Two leagues 
above the village the plant begins to be frequent, and a league further on 
there are large tracts covered with it. The soil it grows in is arid, hard, 
and gravelly in the extreme, so much so that in taking up the root the in¬ 
strument used is a strong iron crowbar, a little flattened at the lower end ; 
from the same cause the roots are generally broken into small pieces in the 
process, it being rather brittle when fresh. The general height of the plant 
is about four feet; but in some places it seems to grow stronger than 
in others, and I saw considerable patches of the shrub quite six feet in 
height. 
“ I gathered many'specimens of the plant in flower and fruit, and also 
a small specimen of the root attached to the stem and branches.”* 
The specimens here alluded to, consist of the pressed and dried plant bearing- 
flowers and fruits, and stems with roots attached, the last being in every respect 
identical with the Savanilla Ithatany of commerce. A slight examination suf¬ 
ficed to prove the plant a species of Krameria , and the next point of interest 
was the determination of the species. Turning to the newly published Prodro- 
mus Florx Novo-Granatensis of MM. Triana and Planchon, one finds three 
species of Krameria there enumerated, namely Kr. Ixina L., Kr. grandiflora 
St. Hil. and Kr. spartioides Kl. to the first of which Mr. Weir’s plant 
proved to be most nearly related. Unfortunately no specimen of Kr. Ixina 
now exists in the herbarium of Linnaeus, but in that of the British Museum 
there are two, representing that form of the plant which has been figured by 
Hayne.f From this type, the New Granada plant differs in having leaves 
which in the young and vigorous shoots have a spathulate rather than lanceo¬ 
late outline, besides which they are somewhat more hirsute. In flowering shoots 
of less luxuriant growth, these differences are far less marked, and the plant in 
this state appears to vary but little from the true Kr. Ixina. The flowers 
and fruits do not present, so far as I have observed, any marked differences. 
Upon showing Mr. Weir’s plant to my friend Dr. Triana, he at once iden¬ 
tified it as the Kr. Ixina of the Prodromus Florx Novo-Granatensis , distin¬ 
guished in his MS. notes as var. /3. granatensis. Considering the present state of 
our knowledge of the species of Krameria , Dr. Triana’s determination of this 
plant as a variety of Kr. Ixina appears to me highly judicious, and far safer 
than the introduction of a new specific name, which the receipt of further spe¬ 
cimens would probably show to be untenable. I therefore accept Krameria 
Ixina L. var. /3. granatensis of Triana as the plant, the dried roots of which 
constitute the drug known as Savanilla Rhatany. 
This form of Kr. Ixina has an extensive geographical range, for besides 
occurring in the locality already mentioned, it exists in Brazil, where it was 
collected in the island of Itamaraca near Pernambuco by Gardner, who described 
it as “ a shrub about 3 feet high with long spreading branches.” Another 
specimen from the same botanist in the Hookerian Herbarium, is labelled “ com¬ 
mon on dry hills in the Sertao of the province of Ceara.” £ 
* Proceedings of the liogal Horticultural Society, Nov. and Dec. 1801, p. 181. 
+ Arzney Gewdchse, viii. 13. 
X For further information on the hitherto-described species of Krameria, and the various 
kinds of Bhatany-root found in commerce, the reader may consult a valuable paper by Pro¬ 
fessor Otto llerg, in the ‘Botanisclie Zeitung’ for October and November, 1850. 
2 L 
VOL. VI. 
