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450
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
it in Brazil, but under another name and prepared
in a different way. There it is called guarana, and
is largely cultivated in the mid-Amazon region,
especially on the river Mauhes, which is a little
west of the Tapajoz, whence it is exported to all
other parts of Brazil. Single plants of it may
be seen in gardens and ro9as all the way up the
Amazon, as far as to the Peruvian frontier ; and
throughout the Rio Negro. Martius's excellent
account of the Guarana of the Mauhes has been
translated by Mr. Bentham in Hooker's Journal of
Botany for July 1851. Martius called the plant
Paullinia sorbilis, apparently not suspecting it to
be the same as Humboldt's Paullinia Ciipana ;
yet
the two are absolutely identical, and Humboldt's
name, being the elder, must stand.
The specimens distributed by Mr. Bentham in
my Plantae Exsiccatae (No. 2055) were gathered
at Uanauaca, a farm on the Rio Negro, a little
below the cataracts. I subjoin the brief description
I drew up on the spot.
PAULLINIA CUPANA, H. B. K., Nov. Gen. Amer. v. p. 117 ;
DC. Prodr. i. 605.
Synon. PauUinia sorl'ilis, Mart., J?eise, ii. p. 1098; ejusdem
Syst. Mat. Med. Brazil, p. 59 ; Th. Mart, in Buchner's Repcrt.
d. Pliann. xxxi. p. 370.
Description. Stout woody twiner, kept down in cultivation to
the size of a compact currant bush. Ramuli and petioles sub-
pubescent. Leaves alternate, pinnate; leaflets two and a half
pairs, 5-J x 2-g- inches, oval, sub-acuminate, grossly and obtusely
serrate, the apical tooth retuse, nearly smooth. Racemes axillary,
with small white flowers in stalked clusters. Fruit (capsule)
yellow, passing to red at the top, obovato-pyriform, tapering below
into long neck (quasi-stipitate), at apex shortly rostrate, i T 7
g- inch
long (neck ^ inch, beak ] inch); pericarp thinnish, soft, glabrous
externally, densely tomentose on the inner surface, 3-valved,
but dehiscing along only two of the sutures, the third remaining
closed, by abortion i -celled, i -seeded. Seed ovato -globose,