250      Microscopical  Characters  of  Spurious  Pareira.  {AniMay?ifSfrm' 
etc.  The  use  of  seeds  which  are  the  product  of  different  plants  can 
hardly  fail  to  throw  discredit  upon  a  drug  which  has  been  proved 
to  possess  definite  and  valuable  physiological  properties,  for  the 
varieties  in  commerce  have  not  shown  to  possess  the  same  strength 
or  even  the  same  active  principle  as  the  original  drug. 
White  Hellebore. — The  most  recent  instance  that  has  come  before 
me  of  the  importance  of  a  knowledge  of  the  geographical  distribu- 
tion of  plants  is  that  of  Veratrum  album. 
A  root  was  offered  in  considerable  quantity  as  white  hellebore, 
which  it  was  supposed  to  resemble.  The  microscopical  and  physi- 
cal characters  of  the  root  indicated  that  it  belongs  to  the  compara- 
tively harmless  natural  order  Scitaminece,  instead  of  to  the  poisonous 
tribe  Colchicece  of  Liliacece.  The  disappointment  that  would  have 
awaited  the  agriculturist  who  might  have  purchased  the  powder  and 
the  chagrin  of  the  chemist  when  some  analyst  had  proved  that  the 
powder  was  not  white  hellebore,  may  be  easily  imagined. 
In  conclusion,  I  would  point  out  that  the  arrival  of  a  drug  from 
an  hitherto  undescribed  geographical  source  should  invariably  lead 
to  a  suspicion  of  its  genuineness,  and  a  special  examination  of  its 
properties  and  quality  by  those  who  purchase  it.  The  instances 
brought  forward  indicate  that  in  every  case  limited  geographical 
sources,  if  mentioned  in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  would  lead  to  greater 
uniformity  in  medicinal  preparations. 
THE   MICROSCOPICAL  CHARACTERS  OF  A  SPURIOUS 
PAREIRA  BRAVA  FROM  BAHIA.1 
By  VV.  Murton  Holmes. 
In  the  year  1873  tne  ^ate  Daniel  Hanbury  pointed  out,  in  a  paper 
communicated  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  (Amer.  Jour.  Phar. 
1873,  p.  449),  that  the  Pareira  Brava  then  in  general  use  was  not 
the  produce  of  Cissampelos  Pareira,  Linn.,  as  stated  in  the  British 
Pharmacopoeia,  and  that  neither  the  stem  nor  root  of  that  plant 
resembled  any  forms  of  the  drug  he  had  ever  met  with.  This  was 
first  pointed  out  in  the  "  Pharmacopoeia  of  India/'  1868.  This  con- 
fusion as  to  the  true  source  of  the  drug  had  lasted  for  more  than 
1  From  Pharmac.  Jour,  and  Transactions,  April  9,  p.  829,  where  drawings  of 
the  vascular  bundles  of  true  pareira  brava  and  of  the  Bahia  drug  are  shown. 
