40 JOURNAL OF THE 



winter of 1883, it seemed desirable to make an examination of them 

 to decide, if possible, the presence of any alkaloid or other principle 

 which would make the decoction useful as a beverage. The usual 

 treatment with magnesium oxide, exhaustion with water, separation 

 by means of chloroform and subsequent purification, was adhered 

 to, resulting in obtaining a small amount of a white substance 

 slightly soluble in water, more so in alcohol, and easily soluble in 

 chloroform, which gave distinctly the tests for caffeine, especially 

 the murexide reaction, and very closely resembled a specimen of 

 pure caffeine from Powers & Weightman. 



This caffeine formed .32 per cent, of the dried leaves. Later on, 

 in May, a much larger supply of the same leaves was gotten from the 

 neighborhood of Wilmington. A more thorough examination o- 

 them was then made with the following results : 



Water in air-dried sample ..13.19 



Extracted by water 26.55 



Tannin.- 7.39 



Caffeine 27 



Nitrogen (on combustion) _ 73 



Ash - 5.75 



The analysis of the ash is shown in column I. 



I. II. 



CaO .10.99 12.34 



MgO -16.59 11-39 



NagO 47 7.28 



K2O 27.02 2.98 



MnOg --- 1.73 2.50 



FegOg .26... 3.41 



SO3 -- 2.50.. .92 



CI. 66... .71 



P2O5 3.34---- - 5.54 



SiOa 1.32 .44.75 



The Mate or Brazilian Holly {Hex Paraguay e7isis), belongs to the 

 same genus. Its ash analysis, as made by Senor Arate, is given in 

 column II. The plant grows wild in Brazil and is very largely used 

 by the South Americans. It has, according to Peckolt (Pharm. J. 

 Trans. [3] 14, 121—124. Abstract, Jour. Chem. Soc, 1884, 479), 

 been planted, and seems to succeed well, in the Cape of Good Hope, 

 Spain and Portugal. It is stated that six different species of Ilex 

 are used in the preparation of this tea. Peckolt gives, in his analy- 

 sis of the air-dried leaves, the per centage of caffeine as . 639. The 



