Mildred E. Mathias

Magic, myth and medicine

Carrots, celery, caraway and cumin and their relatives in the Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) have a long history of human use dating from our earliest written records. A large body of folklore has accumulated on their magical and mythical curative properties. Many of the early uses have persisted as part of 20th century folklore, sometimes supplementary to modern medicine. Studies largely during the last half of this century have provided the chemical bases for some of the ancient cures.

Some Medicinal Plants of the Hehe (Southern Highlands Province, Tanzania)

Our search for plants that are used by primitive people in ways that might indicate an effect on the central nervous system led us to East Africa in 1963. The choice of a locality in which to collect is often fortuitous, in this case a contact with an anthropologist, one of a team from the University of California, Los Angeles, who returned from an extended stay in East Africa with a few plant specimens and a small collection of prepared medicines with local names. The former were mostly plants known to be useful and recorded in the literature, but the plant sources of the latter could not be identified from the native names. The best solution was to visit the original collection site and attempt to collect the plants from which the preparations had been made. We were fortunate in that the anthropologists were able to provide the names of an interpreter and the local medicine men. Our collecting areas were in the Southern Highlands Province in the vicinity of Iringa. The native vegetation is largely Brachystegia woodland, but the medicine men in this area have exploited the total environment, often travelling miles to get a particular plant. We were taken to a number of habitats, from pools along the Little Ruaha River, with a typical riverine vegetation, to thorn scrub on dry rocky hillsides, woodland of Brachystegia and Julbernardia, and open savanna dominated by Parinari. Because of the short time that we could spend in the field we concentrated our efforts on collecting plants that were used in the treatment of epilepsy and insanity, although occasionally we obtained specimens of plants used for other medicinal uses. Herbarium material of each plant was collected, along with material for pharmacological and chemical screening, and some information on methods of preparation of the medicines and dosages. In studying treatments for epilepsy and insanity there are special problems. The patient is often presumed to be bewitched by some supernatural power or by another person. The obvious cure is to thoroughly purge the patient of all foreign influences, and, consequently, medicines which produced violent reactions are assumed to be the most effective. Our collections are indicative of this belief. The plants we obtained contain violent purgatives and emetics, and some of the plants would produce death in overdose. These collections add a significant number of new plants and new uses to the record of medicinal plants. Of the fifty-two species collected, ten are not included in the extensive lists published by Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk (1962) and Kokwaro (1976). New medicinal uses are reported for thirty-one species. Of particular interest is the use of many of these plants in mixtures of two to eleven plants. Such mixtures complicate the pharmacological screening. The collections are listed alphabetically by family. Hehe common names, use and collection number are given. Voucher specimens are at EA and LA. The parenthetical capital letter indicates the treatment in which the plant was used. Following the species list a summary is given of the treatments used by the two informants. Treatments A-L were from an informant in a rural environment. He had

Wetland and aquatic habitats

Abstract Riparian wetland areas often represent critical corridors for animal and plant dispersion in wildland watersheds and downstream river systems. It is essential that integrated management of riparian wetland areas be developed to reverse the loss of biological diversity. Agricultural and urban uses, and related water developments, have led to a marked decline of stream-side wetland habitats. Six major ways are discussed in which conventional agriculture alters wetlands and aquatic habitats: wetland drainage, water diversions, stream channelization, bank stabilization, grazing, and the release of agricultural pollutants. This article discusses these practices and suggests ways biological diversity can be protected, or even enhanced. In addition, aquaculture is discussed as a new force which affects the diversity of aquatic organisms. Aquaculture methods range in intensity of management from low to high. The higher the intensity the potentially more disruptive practices can be to surrounding aquatic systems. Management for biological diversity as well as for food production should be encouraged.

A REVISION OF THE GENUS HYPERBAENA (MENISPERMACEAE)

The genus Hyperbaena consists of 19 species native to tropical America, extending from the islands of the Caribbean and central Mexico south through Central America and South America to northern Argentina and Bolivia. A history of the genus, a key to the species, descriptions and discussions of the species are given, and H. standleyi (Honduras) is described as new.

Some Umbelliferae of the Andean paramos of South America

Two Colombian species described earlier by the authors underPrionosciadium, and a hitherto unnamed collection from the same country are systematically compared with North AmericanPrionosciadium and the monotypic generaCotopaxia (Ecuador) andPerissocoeleum (Colombia). Habit, foliage, inflorescence, fruit, and distribution all suggest that the páramo species exhibit considerable unity ifCotopaxia is excluded. It is indicated also that the genusPrionosciadium has been attributed to South America incorrectly. Despite the somewhat discordant evidence obtained from pollen morphology, it is concluded that the most feasible disposition of the four Colombian plants is to unite them underPerissocoeleum.

The Andean genus Niphogeton (Umbelliferae) revisited

Only ten years ago we offered a revision (Mathias & Constance 1951a) of this small but distinctive genus of Andean Umbelliferae, combining Niphogeton Schlecht., Oreosciaxium Wedd., Urbanosciadium Wolff, and several species hitherto retained under Apium, L. into a single genus comprising some 13 species and four varieties. This interpretation of the group has stood up admirably in the light of much subsequently collected material. What we did not anticipate, however, is the extent to which added exploration would augment both the number of taxa referable to Niphogeton, and its geographical range. It is now incumbent upon us to describe three new taxa from Colombia, Ecuador-Peru, and Bolivia, respectively, and, in recording the unexpected occurrence of the genus in North America, to coin a new nomenclatural combination. We wish to express our appreciation to Harriet G. Barclay, Jose Cuatrecasas, Claudine Friedberg, and Julian A. Steyermark for material of the taxa discussed. The curators of the following herbaria have generously made available critical

Sanicula Deserticola, an Endemic of Baja California

One of the more restricted species of northern Baja California is Sanicula deserticola Bell, known from a few disjunct populations at the northern margin of the Sonoran Desert. One population is known from near El Marmol at the headwaters of the Arroyo de San Fernando, while others are in the yellow hills northwest of Rancho Arenoso and near Rancho Aguajito, both in the drainage of the Arroyo del Rosario. At the lastmentioned locality, it was found growing abundantly on the northwestfacing slopes of a yellow conglomerate hill, 3.6 miles west of Rancho Aguajito (Raven, Mathias , and Turner 12,678 ), associated with Rosa minuti f olia, Euphorbia misera , Yucca whipplei eremica, Idria columnaris, Eriogonum jasciculatum, E. scalare, Encelia с ali fornica var. as peri f olia, Calandrinia maritima, H ar j or dia macroptera, Brodiaea pulchella, Layia platyglossa, and Filago calijornica , as well as two species of Agave and one each of Dudley a, Mammillaria, Echino с er eus, Echino cactus, and Opuntia. This curious mixture of characteristic members of the California flora and such species as Idria columnaris, restricted to the Sonoran Desert, clearly demonstrates the unique ecological position of Sanicula deserticola. The subfamily Saniculoideae of the Umbelliferae, with some 260 species, like the other subfamilies Hydrocotyloideae and Apioideae, has apparently had a long and independent evolutionary history. The distribution of the extant genera of Saniculoideae shows clearly that they have developed within the Arcto-Tertiary Geoflora and have been associated with it for a long time, perhaps since late Mesozoic time when this Geoflora is first recognized in the fossil record. Several of the genera in this subfamily are restricted to areas of Arcto-Tertiary-derived deciduous forest in eastern Asia. Others range south along mountain chains to Africa. The genus Eryngium is world-wide in distribution, whereas the genus Sanicula is exceedingly widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, with some of its species occurring also in the Southern Hemisphere. Shan and Constance (1951) considered the section Sanicula ( Sanicla ), with about one-third of the species of the genus Sanicula , the main trunk of the genus. Some species of this section are widespread in Eurasia, and their present distribution suggests development of the section from a northern stock with subsequent southerly migrations. In North America S. mari landica L. and S. tri j oliata Bickn., which Shan and Constance considered probably the least advanced species, occur as common associates of the eastern deciduous forests. The distribution of this section is therefore

Two new Umbelliferae of the Chihuahuan Desert

Two apparently calcicolous species of apioid Umbelliferae,Aletes calcicola andDonnellsmithia coahuilensis, are described from the Chihuahuan Desert of Coahuila, Mexico.