HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



149 



are brought in and laid upon hurdles and roasted over 

 a lire ; they are then placed upon a hard floor, and 

 well beaten with sticks until the leaves are detached. 

 The dried leaves thus separated are ground in rude 

 mills into a coarse powder, after which they are ready 

 for use. The material thus prepared is packed in 

 leathern bags and skins (very frequently the skin of 

 the great ant-eater) and sent to market, and one may 

 easily judge of the importance of this article in South 

 American trade, when it is stated that not less than 

 5,000,000 lbs. are annually exported from Paraguay 

 alone. There are three sorts known in the South 



very refreshing and restorative to the system after 

 enduring fatigue. It contains the active principle 

 "theine," as Chinese tea doe^. It acts in some 

 degree as an aperient and diuretic, and, if taken in 

 excess, causes diseases similar to those produced liy 

 strong liquors. 



Cinnamon. — This favourite spice and medicine is 

 the produce of more than one species of Cinnamomum, 

 although the best kind is that furnished by C. Zey 

 lanicum, Nees : a tree about forty feet in height, 

 native of Ceylon, but now cultivated in many other 



Fig. 104. — Cinnamon (C Zfylanicuin). 



American niarkets — the Caa-cuys, consisting of half- 

 expanded leaf buds ; the Caa-miri, the leaf torn from 

 its mid-rib and veins without roasting j and the 

 Caa-guaya, or YrMa de Palos of the Spaniards, the 

 whole leaf with the petiole and small branches 

 roasted. 



The mate is prepared for drinking by putting a 

 small quantity in a teapot with a little sugar, and 

 adding boiling water. When sufficiently cool, the 

 tea is drunk from the spout, or imbibed by means 

 of a small tube covered with a wire gauze or 

 perforated at one end, known as a "bombilla." It 

 has an agreeable, slightly aromatic flavour, and is 



parts, especially in India, where it is naturalised. The 

 branches are smooth and shining, leaves variable, 

 ovate, or ovate-oblong, three-nerved, smooth, shining. 

 Flowers in terminal or axillary panicles. The tree 

 succeeds best in Ceylon, where, according to Royle, 

 the soil is pure quartzose sand, climate damp, tempe- 

 rature high and equable. 



It is stated that the plant is rather difficult to 

 cultivate in this country, but thrives best in a damp, 

 high, and equable temperature in hot-hou-es. 



The uses of cinnamon as a spice are well known. 

 The bark is collected from May until October; in 

 collecting it the branches are cut off, varying in 



