The Jesuit priest Thomas Falconer, an Englishman well versed in medicine
and botany, frequently and openly declared that Paraguay had been
enriched by the bounty of nature with so many wholesome plants, roots,
gums, woods and fruits, that whoever was skilled in the knowledge of
those things would have no occasion for European druggists to cure any
disease. Out of many which Paraguay affords either for medicinal or
other purposes, I will describe a few in the order in which they enter
my mind. I doubt not that botanists have written on this subject more
clearly and methodically; whether more faithfully also, I dare not
determine with regard to all.