FROM KŒHLER'S MEDICINAL-PFLANZEN.COCA.CHICAGO:
A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER.

Description of Plate.—A, flowering branch; 1, bracts, enlarged; 2, flowering bud; 3, flower; 4 and 5, petal with ligula; 6, pistil with stamens; 7, stamen; 8, pistil; 9, ovary, transverse section; 10 and 11, corolla; 12 and 13, fruit.

COCA. [1]
(Erythroxylon Coca Lam.)

DR. ALBERT SCHNEIDER,
Northwestern University School of Pharmacy.

It is an aromatic tonic and cerebral stimulant, developing a remarkable power of enduring hunger and fatigue.—Gould: Dictionary of Medicine.

AT THE very outset I wish to state that coca is in no wise related to cocoa, a mistake which is very often made. The term coca, or cuca, as it is sometimes spelled, applies usually to the leaves of Erythroxylon coca, which are used as a stimulant by the natives of South America and which yield cocaine, a very important local anæsthetic. Cocoa or cacao refers to the seeds of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa and chocolate are prepared, so highly prized in all civilized countries. With these preliminary statements I shall begin the description of coca, hoping at some future time to describe the even more interesting and important cocoa-yielding plant.

Coca and cuca are South American words of Spanish origin and apply to the plant itself as well as to the leaves. The plant is a native of Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. It is a shrub varying in height from three to ten feet. The leaves resemble the leaves of tea in general outline. The margin, however, is smooth and entire, the leaf-stock (petiole) short; upper and lower surfaces smooth; they are rather thin, leathery, and somewhat bluish-green in color. The characteristic feature of the leaf is two lines or ridges which extend from the base of the blade, curving out on either side of the mid-rib and again uniting at the apex of the leaf. The flowers are short pedicled, small, perfect, white or greenish-yellow, and occur singly or in clusters in the axil of the leaves or bracts. The shrub is rather straggling and not at all showy.