THE WORLD’S HORTICULTURAL AND MEDICINAL DEBT TO BRAZIL
Loudon, the English horticultural authority, says in his _Encyclopædia
of Gardening_ (1835) that “some of the finest flowers of British gardens
are natives of South America, especially annuals.” He mentions the
dahlia—by the obsolete name of Georgina; the Marvel of Peru (Mirabilia)
the Calceolaria and the Schizanthus, adding that “beautiful shrubs are
not less numerous, but they are generally inmates of greenhouses.”
Since Loudon wrote Brazil, as other parts of South and Central America,
has been the happy hunting ground of plant explorers, and the gardens of
Europe and North America have been beautified to an extent of which that
devoted horticulturist never dreamed. The tale of the indebtedness of
the gardens of less fortunate climes to South America in general and
Brazil in particular for plants and shrubs, both ornamental and of
economic value, would occupy a large volume; the extent of the debt is
no less great than general ignorance of it. Practically nothing is known
of early attempts to introduce Brazilian plants, for they were failures,
and failures they remained for two and a half centuries after South
America was discovered. The science of botany and art of gardening were
alike in primitive stages until the latter part of the eighteenth
century, and, whilst South American plants were known by their local
names, means for their successful transportation had not been found;
nor, in the rare cases of their surviving long journeys by sailing boat,
was successful cultivation of these exotics known. If, as is possible,
there are yet in herbariums in Portugal any plants which the early
colonists sent home, no printed record of them seems to exist.
It was not until the second decade of the nineteenth century that any
serious attempts were made to reveal to the world the richness of
Brazilian flora, and only within recent years that anything like a
comprehensive account of it has been published: as far back as 1648
Willem Piso and Georg Marcgrav published in Amsterdam a large folio
volume containing spirited woodcuts carefully coloured by hand of
Brazilian flowers, shrubs, fishes, birds, reptiles, etc., but this was a
natural history rather than a botanical book. Both these pioneers are
commemorated in _Pisonia_ and _Marcgravia_, species of which are still
in cultivation.
In 1820 three scientific works dealing with Brazilian flora appeared.
Mikan’s _Delectus floræ ... brasiliensis_ was issued in Vienna: Raddi’s
_Di alcune specie nuove del Brasile_ and his _Quarante piante nuove de
Brasile_, were issued in quarto volumes in Modena. Four years later St.
Hilaire published in Paris his _Histoire des Plantes_ of Brazil and
Paraguay; between 1827 and 1831 J. E. Pohl’s _Plantarum Brasilæ icones_
appeared in two folio volumes in Vienna. Other floras of Brazil, notably
that of Martius, 1837–40, came out at intervals, and by the end of the
century the plant life of Brazil was well covered by scientific
publications.
So far as Great Britain is concerned, and it may be taken as a criterion
of Europe generally, the most comprehensive record of sources and dates
of the introduction of South American plants is Loudon’s _Hortus
Britannicus_, first published in 1830. It enumerates something like
thirty thousand species, exotic and otherwise. As the importation of
South American plants was only in its infancy at that time many hundreds
of flowers, now familiar in gardens and hothouses, are not recorded, but
the book is reasonably complete up to the time of publication. Most of
the more important introduced aliens, before and after the date of
Loudon’s great work, may be found described and illustrated in the
_Botanical Magazine of London_ (issued monthly from 1787 to the present
time), while others are dealt with in Loddiges’ _Botanical Cabinet_,
1818–24, and in many other of the quantity of horticultural publications
appearing in Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century—
notably in Nicholson’s _Dictionary of Gardening_ and in the revised
edition of Johnson’s _Gardener’s Dictionary_, bringing the record to the
end of the nineteenth century.
Whilst many European botanists, such as Langsdorff, Burchell, Lhotsky
and others had, during the earlier decades of the nineteenth century,
explored certain parts of Brazil, nothing was of more importance to
general knowledge of the plant-treasures of the country than the work
accomplished by a Scotch botanist, Dr. George Gardner, afterwards
Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens of Ceylon. His _Travels in the
Interior of Brazil_ during 1836–41 is a record of high merit, not only
on account of its contribution to Brazilian botany and natural history,
but because it is a faithful and genial picture of life and conditions
in the interior of Brazil three-quarters of a century ago. The amazing
richness and beauty of Brazilian flora had never before been revealed to
Europeans as through Gardner’s book and his collections of thousands of
specimens; it is extraordinary that these fascinating _Travels_ should
have remained out of print.
Of all the groups of plants introduced to the rest of the world from the
southerly countries of the New World, orchids easily rank first, as the
most precious, the most varied and beautiful, and the most costly: the
first brought to England came from the East and West Indies. _Epidendrum
cochleatum_ found its way from Jamaica to England and was flowered for
the first time in 1787; another species of the same lovely family,
_Epidendrum fragrans_, came also from Jamaica in 1778 but was not
flowered until 1788. In 1794 fifteen species of epiphytal orchids were
at Kew, chiefly brought from the West Indies by Admiral Bligh, and for
many years these islands, and India, were the main sources of orchid
importation. But in 1793 a species of Oncidium was introduced to England
from Panama: in 1811 another came from Montevideo, and by 1818 Brazil
had begun to contribute species of the same genus. In 1825 Loddiges of
Hackney, London, had in cultivation some eighty-four species of orchids
from South America and the East, and by 1830 the Royal Horticultural
Society of London had collectors in various parts of Brazil, hunting for
rare plants.
Many beautiful orchids were sent home by business men residing in South
America; for instance, William Cattley of Barnet, who died in 1832, and
whose name is commemorated by the noble Cattleya, established an
extensive correspondence with business men living abroad for the
purposes of obtaining new and rare orchids, and through his efforts came
many fine specimens, chiefly from Brazil. The earliest Brazilian
_Cattleya_ to reach Europe was C. Loddigesii, 1815, but the most famous
and most protean species of all _C. Cabiata_, reached Europe in 1818,
and others of the same genus came in rapid succession from Brazil,
Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Argentine. Many
beautiful Brazilian orchids were sent by William Harrison, a merchant
living in Rio de Janeiro during the thirties and forties of last
century, to his brother Richard in Liverpool, whose residence at
Aigburth was in those days a Mecca to which orchid lovers paid annual
pilgrimages.
To introduce these plants was one thing; to cultivate them successfully
was quite another. Hooker once declared that for more than half a
century England was “the grave of tropical orchids” and that those
surviving did so in spite of, rather than on account of, the treatment
they received. Each grower had his special system, mostly wrong: it was
not until after repeated and costly failures that orchid importing and
growing became a success, and that success only became general about
1850.
The debt of other countries to Brazil and indeed all tropical America
for ferns and cacti is also great. The Canna and its ally Marcanta may
be traced in England as far back as 1730; the Begonias and the Gesnera
date from 1816–18, whilst the favourite Abutilon, introduced in 1837, is
today hardy in many parts of Europe. The Gloxinia, arriving from South
America a century earlier, has developed possibilities undreamt-of by
earlier horticulturists, and the same may be said of the Fuchsia,
brought from Mexico and Chile, 1823–25. The most popular South American
shrub is the _Escallonia macrantha_, introduced from the island of
Chiloe (Alexander Selkirk’s retreat) in 1848; it has for many years been
a favourite hedge plant in the county of Cornwall, where it thrives in
pink profusion.
[Illustration:
On the Madeira River, Amazonas; rapids at Tres Irmãos.
Victoria Regia lilies near Manáos.
]
The Calceolaria is another early nineteenth century alien from South
America; so too is the Dahlia: sixty years ago whole nurseries were
given over to the culture and hybridization of this flower, and an
entire literature appeared on the subject. Its popularity has somewhat
waned, but on the other hand the most gorgeous of greenhouse climbers,
Bignonia, was never more treasured than it is today. Brazil, and other
adjacent countries, has given us also many species of such genera as
Achimenes, Alstromeria, Anthurium, Aristolochia, Caladium, Calathea,
Hibiscus, Iponoea (the Evening Primrose), and hundreds of other
beautiful plants.
Among plants introduced and cultivated abroad for other reasons than
their loveliness are the pineapple (_Anana sativa_) which reached Europe
as early as 1690; coconuts were carried from Brazil a century ago; and
the Brazil nut (_Bertholletia excelsa_), which was probably first taken
to Portugal by very early navigators, finds its first mention in England
in the 1830 edition of Lindley’s _Natural System of Botany_; he speaks
of the “Souari ... or Brazil nuts of the shop, the kernel of which is
one of the most delicious fruits of the nut kind.”
Brazil’s gifts to the pharmacopeias of the world have also been very
valuable. Discovery, or rather publication in Europe of the medicinal
properties of many Brazilian plants is due to Piso, author with Marcgrav
(“een geboren Duitscher”) of the work _De Medicina Brasiliensi_, etc.,
of 1648, already mentioned. This monumental publication was undertaken
under the patronage of Count John Maurice of Nassau, Governor of North
Brazil during the period of Dutch occupation, a far-seeing man whose
portraits are to be seen in the public galleries of Amsterdam and
Brussels. Nearly all the Brazilian plants with notable medicinal
properties are fully described and illustrated in this book: among them,
and perhaps the best known, is Ipecacuanha, obtained from the root of
_Cephalis ipecacuanha_, native to the damp shady forests of Brazil. This
drug was first mentioned in an account of Brazil given by a Portuguese
friar in Purchas’s _Pilgrimes_, 1625, where it is called _Ipecaya_, so
that it is clear that Piso, although the first to bring the drug to the
notice of European medical men, was not the discoverer of its qualities.
In England the famous physician John Pechey was the first savant to
bring ipecacuanha to general notice in his _Observations made upon the
Brasilian root called Ipepocoanha_, issued in 1682; a few years later it
was firmly established in European medicine. In 1686, says A. C. Wootton
(_Chronicles of Pharmacy_, 1910) Louis XIV bought from Jean Adrien
Helvetius the secret of a medicine with which a number of remarkable
cures had been performed; Helvetius, whose patronymic was Schweitzer,
was the son of a Dutch quack, and he not only made his own fortune out
of ipecacuanha (the royal gift alone was a thousand louis d’or) but got
the appointment of Inspector General of the hospitals of Flanders and
court physician to the Duke of Orleans.
Another famous drug from Brazil is the Balsam of Capevi (or Copaiba—
Copaiva), the sap of _Copaifera officinalis_, a genus of the leguminous
order of plants; it was described by Piso; is mentioned in Edward
Cooke’s _Voyage to the South Sea and round the World_, published in
1712, and first made its appearance in English gardens in 1774, having
previously figured in Jacquin’s _Stirpium Americanarum Historia_, 1763.
Jaborandi, obtained from the dried leaflets of _Pilocarpus
pennatifolius_, was described by Piso and Marcgrav: like the two
mentioned above, this drug was well known to the native tribes of Brazil
and employed by the pagés or medicine men; it received its first serious
notice in recent times in the _Diccionario de Medicina_ published by Dr.
T. J. H. Langgard in Rio de Janeiro in 1865. The plant reached English
gardens three years later, but its properties do not seem to have been
recognized in Europe until 1874, when a Brazilian scientist, Dr.
Coutinho, sent some leaves to M. Rabutau, the eminent pharmacist of
Paris, who tested it and declared it to be as valuable as quinine as a
febrifuge and sudorific.
Guaraná (_Paullinia sorbilis_, Mart.) is a tonic widely used in Brazil
and Peru, which has recently been making its way into favour in Europe,
France taking the drug readily. It is obtained from seeds, and a paste
made which hardens into such a consistency that it can only be powdered
by a grater; this powder is dissolved in cold water and taken as a tonic
and digestive. One of Brazil’s bottled mineral waters is also made with
Guaraná added, and the pink-tinted, rather acrid drink is quite
agreeable.
The Brazilian interior, and particularly Amazonas, is so rich in
medicinal herbs, seeds and roots, that it would take pages to give their
names, and as they are not popularly known, the reader would not be
greatly enlightened, but the Quassia (_Quassia amara_, Linn.) has
international fame; Jalap (_Piptostegia Pisonis_) is an old
acquaintance. Many drugs have local names as the Lagryma da Nossa
Senhora (Tear of Our Lady), a diuretic; the Melão de São Caetano (S.
Caetano’s Melon), whose little fruit of the cucumber class is a
medicine, whose stalks furnish a fine fibre, and whose leaves contain
potash. There is at least one remarkable astringent, the Cipó Caboclo
(_Davallia rugosa_); Cambará is a much-used base for pectoral syrups;
the Batata de Purga and the Purga do Pastor are used all over Brazil;
many of the Rubiaceae are used as febrifuges; there are numbers of
tonics, as the Laranjeira do Matto (Forest Orange) and the Páo Parahyba
and Páo Pereira. Andiroba oil is used to make a skin soap, and also to
light the family lamp in northerly states; the Sapucainha (_Carpotroche
brasiliensis_) tree yields a nut containing fifty per cent of oil used
locally for rheumatism in Minas, Rio and Espirito Santo; and the Pinhão
de Purga’s seeds furnish an oil said to be convertible into gas.
Besides the well-known Vanilla, there is known one fine flavouring and
scenting plant, the Páo precioso, one of the Lauraceae; its bark and
seeds are sweetly perfumed and it is much used by local chemists.
Brazil could if necessary ship excellent mineral waters abroad. There is
an import of bottled waters into Brazil, but they have rivals in the
national waters, chiefly found in Minas Geraes and there bottled by
Brazilian companies. Perhaps the most popular are Caxambú and Salutaris,
but there are others. The chief points of origin are at Aguas Virtuosas,
Caxambú, Lambary, Cambuquira, São Lourenço, and the recently opened
wells at Araxá.
Altogether the natural gifts of Brazil in minerals and plants are such
that not only does she supply the basis for many home-made remedies but
also ships drugs abroad; were her resources better investigated and
quantities developed she could greatly increase her position as a
supplier of medicines to international markets.