Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
August,  1896. 
}    A  Spurious  Maranham  Jaborandi. 
449 
by  injection  of  8  drops  of  a  3  per  cent,  solution,  it  produced  the 
unusual  effects  of  intense  desire  to  micturate,  with  strangury  and 
subsequent  vomiting.  According  to  the  account  furnished  by  Dr. 
Owen  Lankester  to  Mr.  Martindale,  this  occurred  on  three  separate 
occasions,  while  the  solution  of  another  sample  of  the  salt  simply 
produced  the  sweating  characteristic  of  jaborandi. 
We  hope  to  be  able  to  follow  up  this  inquiry,  and,  by  operating 
upon  larger  quantities  of  definitely  authenticated  material,  to  obtain 
some  better  knowledge  of  the  bases  obtainable  from  jaborandi,  as 
well  as  means  of  distinguishing  those  of  which  little  more  than 
their  names  can  be  learned  from  published  accounts. 
Genuine  jaborandi,  Pilocarpus  jaborandi,  has  for  some  months 
past  been  a  scarce  article  in  commerce.  The  small  leaves  of  the 
Maranham  jaborandi,  Pilocarpus  microphyllus,  have,  however,  been 
procurable,  and  have  met  with  .a  ready  sale  to  buyers  for  Germany, 
presumably  for  the  preparation  of  pilocarpine,  of  which  they  con- 
tain a  good  percentage.  Some  of  the  more  recent  importations  of 
these  leaves  have  contained  a  few  bales  of  leaves  almost  indistin- 
guishable from  them  to  the  eye  of  a  casual  observer,  but  differing 
entirely  in  the  absence  of  oil  cells  from  their  tissue.  Some  of  these 
have  already  passed  into  commerce,  and  attention  has  probably  been 
directed  to  them  by  their  not  yielding  pilocarpine. 
From  samples  sent  me  by  Messrs.  Wright,  Layman  and  Umney, 
and  Messrs.  W.  J.  Bragg  &  Co.,  of  Liverpool,  and  from  fragments 
of  flowers  and  fruit  which  Mr.  J.  O.  Braithwaite  kindly  selected  from 
a  quantity  of  the  leaves,  I  have  been  able  to  identify  the  family  and 
genus  to  which  the  plant  yielding  them  belongs. 
For  practical  purposes  the  leaves,  or,  more  properly,  leaflets,  may 
be  recognized  by  the  absence  of  oil  cells,  by  their  reticulated  vena- 
tion (the  veinlets  being  usually  pellucid),  by  not  tapering  to  a  narrow 
base,  and  by  the  very  short  hairy  petiolule,  about  1  mm.  long.  The 
upper  surface  is  glossy,  of  a  brownish-green  tint,  not  grayish-green, 
as  in  P.  microphyllus,  and  the  midrib,  on  the  upper  surface,  is 
minutely  hairy,  and  the  lateral  veins  form  a  more  acute  angle  with 
A  SPURIOUS  MARANHAM  JABORANDI 
By  K.  M.  Hoi,mks. 
1  Pharm.  Jour.  (4),  3,  2  (July  4,  1896). 
