Smilax China and sagittaefolia, yielding the Chinese root, are said to come from the province of Onansi in China.

S. pseudo China, S. Sarsaparilla, S. rubens, and S.  Watsoni, furnish the drug of North America.

The sarsaparilla distinguished in commerce as the Lisbon or Brazilian is the root of S. papyracea of Poiret.  It is an undershrub, the stem of which is compressed and angular below, and armed with prickles at the angles.  The leaves are elliptic, acuminate, and marked with three longitudinal nerves.  This species grows principally in the regions bordering the river Amazon, and on the banks of most of its tributary streams.  It is generally brought from the provinces of Para and Maranham.  It is in large cylindrical bundles, long and straight, and the flexible stem of the plant is bound round the bundles, so as to entirely cover them.  Its fibres are very long, cylindrical, wrinkled longitudinally, and furnished with some lateral fibrils.  Its color is of a fawn brown, or sometimes of a dark grey, approaching to black.  The color internally is nearly white.  Besides this species there are others indigenous, such as S. officinalis, which grows in the province of Mina; S. syphilitica, which grows in the northern regions, and three new species, S. japicanga, S. Brasiliensis, and S. syringioides.  There is also met with in Brazil another plant, Herreria sarsaparilla, belonging to the same natural order, which abounds in the provinces of Rio, Bahia, and Mina, and the roots of which receive the name of wild sarsaparilla.

From Mexico, Honduras, and Angostura very good qualities are imported. S. zeylanica, glabra, and perfoliata furnish sarsaparilla from Asia, and S. excelsa and aspera are used as substitutes for the officinal drug in Europe.

Smilax officinalis, found in woods near the Rio Magdalena in New Granada, furnishes the best in the market, which is commonly known as Jamaica Sarza.  It differs from the other kinds in having a deep red cuticle of a close texture, and the color is more generally diffused through the ligneous part.  It is shipped in bales, formed either of the spirally formed roots, as in the Jamaica and Lima varieties, or of unfolded parallel roots, as in the Brazilian varieties.  The roots are usually several feet long, about the thickness of a quill, more or less wrinkled, and the whole quantity retained for home consumption, in 1840, was 143,000 lbs.  In 1844, 184,748 lbs., and in 1845 111,775 lbs. were shipped from Honduras.

The prices in the London market, at the close of 1853, were —­Brazil, 1s. 3d. per lb.; Honduras, 1s. 3d. to 1s. 8d. per lb.; Vera Cruz, 6d. to 11d. per lb.; Jamaica, 1s. 8d. to 3s. 4d. per lb.  The duty received on sarsaparilla in 1842 was L1,536.

The average annual quantity of sarsaparilla obtained from Mexico and South America, exclusive of Brazil, and taken for home consumption, in the twelve years ending with 1843 was 37,826 lbs.