ON GUARANA. 
341 
jected to the missions of the Jesuits and others, without having 
recourse to arms, and converts to Catholicism; whilst the more 
carniverous races, possessed of horses, to the present time 
have remained ferocious and untameable. 
It is easily comprehended, then, that the Guaranis are un- 
der the necessity of uniting a tonic with their daily food. 
They unite the guarana, therefore, constantly either with 
the fecula of the manioc, or with chocolate; they also mix it 
with their sugary drinks, &c, for the cure of dysentery or 
diarrhoeas, to which they are exposed by their too debilitating 
nourishment. 
The tribe of Maubes or Mauhfo especially, in the province 
of Para, or of Tapajoz, near the river Maragnon, (Upper Ama- 
zon,) near the city of Topinambarana, prepare a large quan- 
tity of guarana. The shrub which affords it forms a cipo; 
a vine-like thicket; the stem climbing; the leaves winged. 
The seeds are collected in October and November, contained 
in the capsules, which must be exposed to the sun in order to 
open. These seeds are covered with an arillus of a flesh co- 
lor, which is separated by simple pressure. The pellicles, 
when separated and dried, furnish a rich coloring matter for 
dying the teeth.* 
Martius has classed this twining shrub under the name of 
Paullinia sorbilis, (on account of its employment in drink,) 
in the Class Octandria, order Trigynia, of Linnaeus, and in 
the family of Sapindaceae, of Jussieu. 
The calyx has five sepals; the corolla four petals ; each 
capsule is trilocular, with three coriaceous valves. The seeds 
are without albumen, almost corneous, lenticular, and em- 
bossed; their perisperm is of an ashen gray color, of a bitter 
taste, not disagreeable, and a little oily; the membranous 
arillus detaches itself by desiccation. There is found in the 
Peruvian forests another Paullinia, the arillus of which is more 
succulent and nutritive, (Semarillaria subrotunda, Ruiz and 
♦Extract from the manual of Brazilian Agriculture of C. A. Taunay, Rio 
Janeiro, 1839, by the Honorable Lemaine Lisancourt, of the Academy of 
Medicine, a work recently cited of Brazil, by the Botanist Guillemin. 
