Paraguay abounds in the root jalap, the plant of which is called by botanists Mirabilis Peruviana. These roots are long, thick, and resinous. Without they are of a dusky brown, but within of a pure white, without any decay. They not only cure bile, and rheum, but expel other noxious humours from the body. The rosin of jalap is prepared from them.
MECHOACHÀN.
Mechoachàn is a large light root, entirely white at the beginning, but of a dusky colour above. Some call it bryonia Indica, but though it resembles the bryonia, its plant is a convolvulus, and bears heart-shaped leaves, and small berries. The mechoachàn is well calculated for gently purging infants; for the powder to which the root is reduced has no taste, and looks like flour.
SASSAFRÀS.
The tree sassafràs, which is very common throughout the whole of America, may be commended for its beauty, as well as its salubrity. The trunk is perfectly straight and plain, to the length of about thirty feet, when the top unfolds into branches, and leaves. Not only the wood of this tree, but also the bark and root smell very strong of fennel, which keeps off decay and rottenness. Like santalum it is of a dusky yellow colour, and has a sharp aromatic taste, and a pleasant smell. Druggists should examine carefully that the wood of the red fir, boiled in fennel, may not be palmed upon them by foreign traders for the real wood. There is also another kind of sassafràs, which has leaves like those of a laurel, and bears an odoriferous and blackish fruit. The bark is of a darkish red colour. This other species is said to possess the same virtue as the former, in provoking perspiration, and urine, in healing maladies arising from cold, syphilis, obstructions in the bowels, disorders in the womb, &c. The apeterebî, a tree common in the North of Paraguay, is also thought by some to be a species of sassafràs.
HOLY WOOD.
The tree called holy wood is very broad, but not very lofty. It has little and almost round leaves, two of which proceed from single stalks, and are indented at the top. It bears yellow flowers, which grow either single or two together, at the extremity or in the middle of the boughs. The wood is exceedingly hard, and will last almost for ever, even under water. The pith is of a lead colour. The rosin which exudes from this tree is bitter, aromatic, and said to possess equal medicinal properties with the wood: it, as well as the gum, is reduced to a powder which the Paraguayrians drink in cold water, as a cure for dysentery. For what disorders, and in what manner this salutary wood is to be used, it is not my province to explain. This tree does not grow in the South of Paraguay, but in the North, where the Abipones and Mocobios dwell; it is also found in some parts of upper Tucuman.
THE GUAYACÀN.
It is a great mistake to suppose that holy wood, and guayacàn are the same; for though the wood of both possess the same power of healing almost any disease, yet the two trees differ as much in form as in name: for the guayacàn is loftier than the other, and almost resembles a nut-tree. It abounds in boughs, and bears small hard leaves. The flowers are yellow and produce fruit full of seeds. The blacker the pith of the tree is the more it abounds in rosin. The bark of this tree is hard, resinous, and composed of several little skins, spotted with grey on the outside, but within of a pale red: it has a bitter taste, but not an unpleasant smell, and is thought to be more efficacious in medicine than the wood itself.