450  A  Spurious  Maranham  Jaborandi.  {^^.uS™* 
the  midrib.  Usually  there  are  small  rounded  or  oval  leaflets,  about 
y2  cm.  long,  mixed  with  the  larger  leaflets,  which  average  2  y2  to  3 
cm.  long ;  these  are  never  present  in  the  true  Maranham  jaborandi. 
The  presence  of  these  small  leaflets  should,  therefore,  at  once  serve 
to  the  unaided  eye  as  a  guide  to  the  presence  of  the  spurious  drug. 
So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  the  plant  yielding  the 
leaflets  is  hitherto  undescribed,  and  it  may,  therefore,  be  useful  to 
record  the  details  at  present  obtainable.  The  leaves  (a)  are  erecto- 
patent,  alternate  with  the  rachis,  which  is  covered  with  minute, 
incurved,  ferruginous  hairs,  imparipinnate,  with  four  or  rarely  five 
pairs  of  alternate  leaflets,  which  are  small  and  rounded  in  the  lowest 
pair,  becoming  gradually  larger  towards  the  terminal  leaf,  which  is 
largest,  reaching  7  (or  more)  cm.  long  by  1  y2  cm.  broad  (b).  The 
leaflets  vary  in  shape  from  orbicular  to  ovate,  elliptical  or  rhom- 
boidal-lanceolate ;  they  are  emarginate,  glossy  and  brownish-green 
above,  with  the  midrib  hairy,  especially  towards  the  base,  paler  and 
glabrous  beneath,  and  are  furnished  with  a  short  petiolule,  1  mm. 
long.  The  surface  is  minutely  reticulated  with  pellucid  veinlets. 
In  some  leaflets,  however,  the  veinlets  are  opaque,  partly  or  wholly. 
The  centre  of  each  areola  is  paler  and  semi-translucent.  The  leaves 
of  the  young  shoots  are  comparatively  thin. 
The  leaflets  have  usually  all  the  network  of  the  veins  translucent, 
and  the  centre  of  the  areolae  between  the  veinlets  is  paler  than  the 
margin  next  to  them.  From  this  appearance  of  the  veinlets,  I  was 
at  first  led  to  suppose  that  the  leaves  belonged  to  some  anacardia- 
ceous  plant,  especially  as  the  fruit  appeared  to  be  one-seeded.  The 
examination  of  the  young  ovary,  however,  at  once  showed  that  with 
ten  ovules  it  could  not  belong  to  that  natural  order.  The  translu- 
cency  of  the  veins  is,  however,  due  to  quite  another  cause  than  the 
secretory  cells  characteristic  of  the  veins  in  that  natural  order. 
Prof.  Greenish  was  kind  enough  to  cut  some  sections  of  the  leaf  for 
me,  and  these  showed  that  palisade  cells  were  absent  over  the  veins, 
and  that  the  small  cells  which  replace  them  are  free  from  chloro- 
phyll. The  paler,  semi-translucent  appearance  of  the  centre  of  the 
areolae  is  apparently  due  to  hollow  spaces  in  the  spongy  paren- 
chyma, the  cells  of  which  contain  but  little  chlorophyll. 
Only  two  imperfect  flowers  were  met  with  (V),  and  in  these  the 
calyx  was  torn ;  only  five  stamens  were  present  and  a  portion  of  a 
petal.    It  was,  however,  possible  to  determine  that  the  calyx  was 
