with the plate of Cissampelos Abutua in Vellozo's Flora Fluminensis* with which Eichler doubtfully identifies it.

Chondodendron tomentosum has been found in various parts of Brazil, where it is known as Butua and Abutua. Its raceme of large oval berries, exactly like a bunch of grapes, is another evidence that it is the plant which the old Portuguese colonists

Tom. X, tab. 140. Mr. Miers regards this to represent his Abuta macrophylla, a very different plant.

+From a specimen preserved in alcohol, sent to me by Mr. Peckholt.

1. From a sample purchased in London in 1862. 2. Sections of roots received from Mr. J. Correa de Mello.

I called Pareira brava or wild vine.* Neither the fruit nor the foliage of Cissampelos Pareira have anything about them suggestive of a grape vine.

The root of Chondodendron cannot be confounded with the stem, which is woody and fibrous, and of a different structure. Geoffroy's description of the former, which I have translated at page 25, is correct so far as it goes. I may add that the numerous specimens I have seen present but little variation. All are portions of a tortuous, branching root, wrinkled longitudinally, and having transverse fissures, constrictions, or ridges. The root is externally of a blackish-brown, and light yellowish-brown within. In Mr. Francis's drug there are young roots having the remnants of green aërial stems rising from their upper part. In Mr. Peckolt's specimen the aërial stems are fully preserved, as thick as the finger, and many feet in length. The root seems to be gorged with juices, so that under the penknife it cuts more like a very hard fat or wax than as a fibrous wood. In transverse section it does not display zones of the same regular and beautiful definition that one sees in ordinary Pareira brava. In the root of Chondodendron there is a large well-marked central column composed of wedges diverging from a common axis, round which are arranged a few concentric rings intersected by wedge shaped rays which are often irregular, scattered, and indistinct. The axis is not often eccentric.

In Cissampelos Pareira the root and stem are nearly alike in structure, and in transverse section show no concentric rings.

TRANSVERSE SECTION OF STEM OF Cissampelos Pareira, L. From a Jamaica specimen.

Those received from Jamaica, which were the largest that could be collected, were rarely so much as an inch in diameter, and in many localities it is difficult to obtain the stem or root thicker than a goosequill.

* In Portuguese the word is written Parreira, and signifies a vine that grows against a wall or over an arbour. Párra is a vine-leaf.

The Pareira brava of English commerce is mostly of larger size than the root of Chondodendron, and is a much more woody substance. Its internal structure, which is familiar to most druggists, is very remarkable, consisting of a series of layers which

ROOT (?) COMMONLY KNOWN AS Pareira brava, AND ERRONEOUSLY REGARDED AS

are often developed exclusively in one direction. Nothing is known of the botanical origin of this drug, beyond the fact that the structure of the wood is that of the order Menispermaceœ.

Of late years even this sort has become rare, and its place has been taken by a drug completely devoid of medicinal power. This latter consists of cylindrical woody truncheons, which have an internal structure not very diverse from that represented on page 31, though generally less eccentric, with always a distinct central pith. The wood is tasteless, and often seems to have been injured by damp. It should be rigidly excluded from pharmaceutical use.

Several other sorts of Pareira brava are known-at least in South America. One, of which there is a parcel now in the London market, is remarkable for its large size, and for being internally of a fine yellow. As it is also very bitter, it probably contains berberine.

Another sort is derived from Abuta rufescens, Aublet, a wellmarked plant growing in Guiana and North Brazil. Specimens of a thick woody root, marked Abutua grande or Parreira brava grande, and attributed to this species, have been sent to me by Mr. Correa de Mello; they exhibit numerous concentric layers traversed by very distinct, dark medullary rays, the inter-radial spaces being white, and rich in starch. It is apparently a well-marked sort, and one I have not seen in commerce. **

In conclusion I strongly advocate returning to the use of the root of Chondodendron, which is the drug on which the reputation of Pareira brava was originally founded.

In Brazil this root is regarded as the legitimate sort, and is still held in the highest esteem.

. Though it has not been clearly recognized by European writers, it is not altogether unknown. Guibourt seems to have been acquainted with it, and even correctly surmised its botanical origin. It is the root figured by Göbel and Kunze, and there is an old specimen of it in the Pharmaceutical Society's Museum marked

* When Aublet was in Guiana, 1762-64, the stems of Abuta rufescens were shipped to France as Pareira Brava blanc. He says, there is a variety of the same with the woody parts reddish, which is known in Cayenne as Pareira Brava rouge. He also describes and figures a plant he calls Abuta amara or Pareira Brava jaune, which has the wood yellowish and very bitter.

This last is, I think, identical with the yellow wood of which, as I have said, there is a quantity now on sale as "Pareira Brava.”—See Hist. de Plantes de la Guiane Françoise, i. (1775), 618-21, tab. 250-51.

Hist. de Drog., ed. 4, iii. (1850), 671.

Pharm. Waarenkunde, ii. (1830-34), tab. 13, fig. 1, b, c.