MEDICO-BOTANICAL NOTICES. 
193 
moptysis. The whole plant is employed, either in powder or 
infusion. It has a peculiar, and somewhat terebinthaceous 
smell, and a slightly bitter and rather unpleasant taste. These 
properties in a great measure depend on the presence of a pe- 
culiar essential oil, though from the general effects of the re- 
medy, it is probable that some other active principles are con- 
joined to it. No analysis has been made of it, and hence we 
can only speak from analogy. 
Pariera brava. — Under this name the roots of several 
plants are confounded in commerce, and the best writers on 
Materia Medica evince great uncertainty in their descriptions 
of it. Decandolle considers the genuine article to be the 
product of the Cissampelos pariera, as this is certainly the 
root spoken of by Sloane and others. As far as we have 
been able to investigate its synonyma it appears to be the 
Clematis baccifera, &c. Sloane. Jamaica I. 200 . 
Convolvulus Brasiliensis. Ray. Hist, plant. 1331. 
Caapeba. Margrave. Brasil 24. Piso. Brasil. 94. 
C. folio orbiculato, &c. Plumier. Gen. 33. 
Cissampelos scandens. Browne. Jamaica 357. 
C. caapeba? Linne. Sp. PI. 
C. pariera Linne. Sp. PI. Decandolle Syst. I. 533, &c. 
but not of Ainslie, Mat. Med. Ind. II. 315. 
It is known in Jamaica under the names of Velvet leaf and 
Ice vine. It grows in great abundance in that island in 
the mountainous districts, attaining a great size, covering 
even the tallest trees with its velvet-like foliage. It also oc- 
curs in several others of the West India islands and was dis- 
covered by Humboldt in South America, where it had been 
previously noticed by Margrave and Piso. Ainslie speaks of 
it as a native of the East Indies, but it appears from more re- 
cent observations that his plant is another species the C. 
Mauritiana, though endowed with analogous remedial pro- 
perties. 
The first notice we have of the Pariera was from Mar- 
grave and Piso, who mention a root employed by the na- 
vol. II. — no. in. 25 
