Note 13 — EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1668

The name sarasa is applied by Blanco to a shrub, Justicia ecbolium, also called morado; he does not mention it as of use in medicine, although he ascribes such properties to other species of the same genus. The Official Handbook of the Philippines (Manila, 1903), pp. 395, 399, says that sarasa is the Tagálog appellation of the Visayan pasao (Graptophyllum hortense); its leaves are used “in topicals for the maintenance of fonticulus [a small artificial ulcer].” If this be intended in the text, piezas may be translated “packages;” but sarasas (evidently some product of Siam) here may have some other meaning. ↑