[1] There is no problem of identifying the old Plains “red bean” with the
“mescal bean”; both Schultes and I obtained Kiowa specimens in the field.
The problem is the correct botanical classification of the specimens, and
the widespread misusage of their name for peyote.
[2] Standley, _Trees and Shrubs_, 435; Dayton, _Important Western Browse
Plants_, 87; Boughton and Hardy, _Mescalbean_, 5; Opler, _Autobiography_.
The Chiricahua “Mountain laurel” is _S. secundiflora_.
[3] Henry (T. A.), _The Plant Alkaloids_, 395; Dayton, op. cit.,
89. Havard (_Report on the Flora_, 500) says the alkaloid sophoria
[sic] was isolated by Dr. H. C. Wood in 1877 as a whitish, amorphous
substance producing convulsions, temporary loss of voluntary movement,
and distressing vomiting; again (_Drink Plants_, 39) he says sophorine
[sic] is an irritant-narcotic. Another alkaloid, matrine, is found in
_Sophora_ spp. (Nagai, Plugge, Kondo et al. in Henry (T. A.), _The Plant
Alkaloids_, 398). Havard, citing one Bellanger, says the Indians near San
Antonio formerly used the seed as an intoxicant, half of one producing
a delirious exhilaration followed by a deep sleep lasting two or three
days; a whole bean, according to Dr. Rothrock’s informant, would kill a
man. Dayton, 89, says children have been known to die from the effects
of eating seeds of _S. secundiflora_; in any case, a rupture of the
hard, leathery coat of the bean would be required for the release of the
alkaloid in the bean-flesh.
Cattle and sheep appear to be more affected by the leaves of the plant,
which also contain the alkaloid, than by the beans. The effect on them
is marked: sheep fed about one percent body weight of the leaves were
paralyzed in the legs for days and calves fed as little as .25% of body
weight of fresh leaves died in 45 hours; one fed 1.0% died in 1¾ hours.
Recovery in sheep sometimes required 12 days, in calves up to 16 days
(Boughton and Hardy).
[4] Condensed and synthesized from Boughton and Hardy; Havard, _Report on
the Flora_, 458, 500; _Drink Plants_, 39-40; Standley, 435; Dayton, 87-89.
[5] Safford, _Narcotic Plants_, 398.
[6] Mooney, _Tarumari-Guayachic_ (quoting Safford?).
[7] Gilmore, _Uses of Plants_, 99 writes: “The Omaha traveling into
Oklahoma have found them [chinaberry] there, and have taken up their use.
They already had employed for beads as well as for a good-luck charm the
bright red seed of a species of _Erythrina_. They say it grows somewhere
to the southwest, toward or in Mexico. They call it ‘red medicine,’ makaⁿ
zhide (makaⁿ, medicine; zhide, red). When the seeds of Melia (azerdache
L.) [chinaberry] were adopted for use as beads, they likened them to
makaⁿ zhide, and so call them makaⁿ-zhide sabe, ‘black red-medicine’.”