OCTOBER 1 TO DECEMBER 31, 1910. 33 



whole fruit is planted, three years are necessary. Plant in the nursery first; then 

 transplant, spacing 10 feet apart for square method. When full grown the tree ia 

 from 30 to 40 feet high. The yerba is the leaf, cut and prepared about once every 

 three years if you own the tree, once every two years if you rent the yerbal. The 

 extra year acts the same on (he life of the tree as proper or improper pruning does on 

 fruit trees. The general method here is to rent two or three yerljales and harvest one 

 each year, the picking season of Paraguay being from June 15 to the end of August. 



"As near as I can find out, the method of preparing for market is to pick the leaves, 

 partly dry by a fire, finish drying in the sun, and then break up fine with a kind of 

 flail, when it is ready to sack and market. The flavor of yerba is regulated by variety; 

 the strength, by years of growth and methods of preparation. The yield of yerba is 

 about 3 kilos per tree when three years old, 6 kilos per tree the second crop, and a grad- 

 ual increase then until full grown, when you can cut 80 to 100 kilos (this is probably 

 incorrect as most authorities agree that only 25 to 35 kilos can be cut every three years). 



"Mate, or, yerba takes the place of tea and coffee south of Brazil, and its use is being 

 widely extended. There are already companies in Britain for exploiting it, and the 

 export to Mediterranean countries has attained some volume. It has the general 

 reputation of being far less injurious than tea or coffee. When used constantly, 

 however, you have the same craving as with the others, and the majority even go so 

 far as to endow the use of yerba, especially 'amargo' (without sugar), with medicinal 

 qualities, though experiments carried on in Buenos Aires go to prove that such claims 

 are greatly exaggerated, and the 'cup of mate was not so good for Mary Anne' as the 

 Buenos Aires Standard expressed it. 



"Yerba is the name of the herb, but the tea is always spoken of as mat6. Mat6 

 cocido is boiled yerba; this taken the same way as tea or coffee in cups is the 'gringo' 

 style. For peons, a tin cup of mate and six small biscuits keep their speck of life 

 until noontime. The general method of serving, however, is with mate and bom- 

 billa, the word 'mate ' here meaning the small gourd used to hold yerba and the 'bom- 

 billa' the thin tube through which mat^is sucked. The mate is about the size of a 

 small cup. The yerba is placed inside and the resultant tea sucked out through the 

 bombilla. The use of sugar is optional. On emptying the mate cup hot water is 

 poured in again and it is passed to the next member of the ring around the fire; a 

 very unsatisfactory and unsanitary method, to say the least, but the only way accord- 

 ing to the natives, even though it is necessary to repeat the operation for about two 

 hours to get enough. Mat6 cocido would be the only method for white people. Yerba 

 sells in Buenos Aires for $1.15 in silver (about 50 cents in gold) per kilo." (Mead.) 



See No. 25529 for previous introduction. 



29098. PopULUs TREMULA L, Poplar. 



From Tiflis, Caucasus, Russia. Presented by the Tiflis Botanic Garden. Re- 

 ceived December 5, 1910. 



"The wood of this tree is used almost exclusively in the match industry of Sweden. 

 Undoubtedly the other species of Populus, i. e., P. alba and P. canescens, could be 

 used to advantage for the same purpose but for the fact that the latter are not so abun- 

 dant as P. trcvnda. P. tremula does not appear to have been noticed by botanists in 

 America, although it is frequently found planted in our parks. It is readily recognized 

 by its large dark-brown buds, 1 centimeter long and half as wide. These are rather 

 blunt and not pointed, as in the case of the Lombardy and Carolina poplars. P. 

 tremula was in all probability introduced into Maryland by the early settlers, as it and 

 other species are frequently found about the old mansions." {Extract from letter oj 

 Mr. I. Tidestrom, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, September 17, 1910.) 

 227 



