Flora Medica

SMILACEJE.1270. S. Sarsaparilla Linn. sp. pi 1459. Woodv. t. 62.S. glauca Michx.fl. bor. am. ii. 237. Southern States of theAmerican Union.If the North American plantis to be taken for what Linnaeus intendedby this name, I can find no good authority for its furnishingany part of the Sarsaparilla of commerce. is Nothing known in theUnited States of its possessing any medicinal properties, and it is probablethat the opinion of its being the source of the drug has originatedin some mistake.1271. Smilax Purhampuy Ruiz memoria sobre las virtudes,Sfc. de Purhampuy, p. 65. Very abundant among bushes andtrees in the mountain-woods of Panao, Chaclla, Muna, Pillao,Pozuzo, and Acomayo, in Peru, flowering in October and November.Stem climbing, prickly, nearly round. Leaves large, unarmed, cordate,ovate, acute, and acuminate, 5-nerved. Flowers from 6 to 10 onglobose receptacles, umbellate, yellowish green. The roots of thisspecies are highly extolled by Ruiz, who calls it China Peruviana, asone of the very best kinds of Sarsaparilla. Is it not the same asS. officinalis ?1271 1a. S. medica Schlecht. in Linncea vi. 47 Mexico.Stem angular, armed with straight aculei at the joints, and with a fewhooked ones in the intervals. Leaves of the texture of paper, brightgreen on each side, smooth, cordate, auriculate, shortly acuminate,5-nerved, with the veins of the underside prominent ;in form they arevery variable, being ovate, somewhat panduriform, auriculate, andsomewhat hastate, with the lobes of the base obtuse, sometimes obsolete,sometimes divaricating their ; edge not straight, but as if irregularlycrenate ; petioles and midrib armed, when old, with straight subulateprickles. Peduncles varying in length from 3 lines to an inch and more.Umbel about 12-flowered, with the pedicels about 3 lines long. Thisis undoubtedly the species that produces the Vera Cruz Sarsaparilla.Schiede who found it on the eastern slope of the Mexican Andes, saysit is carried from the villages of Papantla, Tuspan, Nautla, Misantla, &c.to Vera Cruz, under the name of Zarzaparilla, and is there introducedinto the European market. He was told that the roots are gatheredall the year long, dried in the sun, and then tied in bundles for sale.Linncea, iv. 576.1272. S. siphilitica Willd. sp. pi iv. 780. HBK. n. g. etsp. pi i. 271. Woods of tropical America, on the banks of theriver Cassiquiare, between Mandavaca and San FranciscoSolano.Stem round, smooth, furnished only at the knots with 2-4 short,thick, straight, prickles. Leaves a foot long, oblong-lanceolate, coriaceous,shining, acuminate, 3-nerved, terminated by a long point. InSouth America a kind of Sarsaparillais produced by the roots of this,which is held in the highest estimation. Martius is said to have foundAccording to Mr.it in the Brazils, at Yupura, and by the Rio Negro.Pereira this yields Lisbon or Brazilian Sarsaparilla.598