Cundurango.
Editor American Journal of Pharmacy:
Dear Sir:—We had a few days since a call from Mr. Wiehl U. S. Consul at Guayaquil, with samples of the flowers, leaves and fruit of the cundurango vine.
The name cundurango means literally eagle vine. Of this plant, it appears there are some six known varieties, but three of which have been much used medicinally, called in Spanish, dog killer, big fruit and little fruit. The dog killer is the only true officinal cundurango, and is easily distinguished from all the other varieties, by the fact that when cut transversely, the bark of the vine is full of small red crystals, which are resinous and shining in cells. All these plants belong to the Asclepiadeae family. The flower, the leaf and the pod, with the seed and silk fibres of the true "mata perro" or dog killer, look almost precisely like those of our own milkweed.
The cundurango is a tropical climbing milkweed, seeking the loftiest trees in the cinchona region, and the testimonials about it are very high as an alterative for syphilitic affections, &c.
In haste, your friend,
DAN. C. ROBBINS.
