_Sophora secundiflora_ contains the highly toxic narcotic alkaloid sophorine, C₁₁H₁₄ON₂, which is identical with cytisine (= ulexine, = baptitoxine). Resembling nicotine closely in physiological action, the contents of one bean are said to be able to produce nausea, convulsions and even death by asphyxiation in man.[3] _Sophora secundiflora_ (= _Broussonetia secundiflora_) itself is a handsome evergreen shrub or small tree, eight to thirty-five feet high, bearing thick, leathery, dark glossy green leaves. The violet-blue bunches of flowers appearing in the spring give off a strong rank fragrance, and from these develop, in the summer, woody pods, satiny outside, two to four inches long, and containing one to four hard-shelled bright red beans.[4] Safford[5] states that “these beans are often confused with those of certain species of _Erythrina_, which are sometimes sold in their place in the markets of Mexico, but which are not at all narcotic.” It is therefore possible, and indeed probable, that the beans used as necklaces and bandoliers in the Plains were both _Sophora_ spp. and _Erythrina_ spp.; Mooney[6] for example had specimens of red bean necklaces identified as _S. secundiflora_ and _E. fruticisa_. The confusion of the two closely related groups is understandable when the beans alone are available for diagnosis; the bean of _Sophora secundiflora_ differs from that of _Erythrina flabelliformis_, for example, in little more than the shape of the hilum, or scar of attachment, that of the former being rounded and of the latter more linear, while the beans of _E. corraloides_ are more elongate than those of _Sophora_. Gilmore’s[7] identification of the Omaha “red-medicine” with _Erythrina_ spp. may possibly be wholly correct since he mentions only decorative and magic uses for the beans; but in view of the chemical composition of the two, any ritual narcotic use must _a fortiori_ refer to _Sophora secundiflora_, the “mescal bean” proper. FOOTNOTES: [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_.