496 NATURAL SCIENCE. sept- 



gourd, Cucumis utilissimus. Ferments capable of digesting proteid 

 matter have already been shown to exist in various parts of plants^ 

 the insectivorous leaves of Drosera, the pitchers of Nepenthes, the 

 germinating seeds of the Lupin, and the Castor Oil plant, the fruit 

 of the Papau, and the latex of the Fig. The Kachree gourd has, in 

 India, the reputation of possessing the same properties as the two 

 last-mentioned plants, and Professor Green shows conclusively that 

 it contains a ferment which is very similar to papain, the vegetable 

 trypsin of the Papau. The expressed juice of the central pulp, and 

 a watery extract of the pulp just beneath the rind, were both found 

 capable of dissolving coagulated egg albumen. As the disappearance 

 of the albumen was much more rapid when a 3 per cent, salt solution 

 was used, it is concluded that the ferment is either a globulin in 

 nature, or, more probably, associated with a globulin constituent in 

 the plant cells. The digestive power of the watery extract would 

 be explained by the presence of inorganic salts in the plant, which 

 would assist solution on addition of water. The ferment resembles 

 papain in working best in a slightly alkaline solution, less readily in 

 a neutral one, and least of all in the presence of an acid. Like papain, 

 too, it is allied to the trypsin rather than the pepsin of the animal 

 organism, as it effects a very complete decomposition of the albumen, 

 giving rise to peptone and later to leucin. 



According to the Kew Bulletin for May and June, the con- 

 sumption of Paraguay tea or Mute in South America, rivals that of 

 the Eastern herb in the Old World. It is extensively used by the 

 whole population, " upwards of five million pounds " being exported 

 from Paraguay alone. Its preparation is apparently somewhat 

 rougher than the Chinese or Indian method ; the leaves are scorched 

 and dried on the branches brought in by the collectors, and then 

 beaten, separated, coarsely ground by rude mills, and packed in skins 

 and leather bags. In use, the leaves are infused in small tea-pots, 

 and the liquid sucked up through a tube with wire network or 

 perforations at the bottom. The active principle in the leaves is 

 caffein, an alkaloid identical with that found in the ordinary tea and 

 coffee. There is, moreover, a large amount of tannic acid, according 

 to Dr. T. C. Charles, who also tells us in a note in the British Medical 

 Journal of July, i8go, that Matv is closely allied to coffee, but is 

 slower in yielding up its nutritious principles to boiling water. To 

 the first-mentioned periodical Mr. N. E. Brown supplies a note on 

 the botany of Paraguay tea, which is apparently obtained from 

 several species of Ilex — a genus known to us in the common holly 

 {Ilex aquifolinm) — and a species of Symploctis and Elaodendwn. The 

 most important is the Ilex paraguariensis of St. Hilaire, of which there 

 are several varieties, probably yielding different qualities of tea. 



