MIMOSA CATECHU. ORD, XXV. Loimentacce. 435 
drug to the “ Areca Catechu frondibus pinnatis, foliolis replicatis 
oppositis premorsis.” We are told however by Mr. Kerr, that in 
the Province of Bahar, where the Terra Joponica is manufactured, 
the price of the Areca-nut far excéeds that of the Catechu. But 
he thinks it probable that where this nut is in great plenty, “ they 
may perhaps join some of the fruit in making the extract, to 
answer a double purpose, for the most frequent use of both is in 
chewing them together, as Europeans do tobacco; to these two 
substances they add a little shell lime, and a leaf called Pauw.’ 
Cleyerus and Herbert de Jager,* more especially the latter, have 
asserted, that the Catechu is not extracted from one tree only, 
but from almost all the species of Acacia, whose bark is astringent 
and reddish, and from many other plants, which by boiling yield 
a juice of the like sort; and though these extracts differ consider- 
ably, yet in India they are all denominated Khaath or Catechu.t 
But the tree which affords the best extract, according to his de- 
scription appears evidently to be a Mimosa.* 
In this uncertainty our knowledge concerning the production of 
Terra Japonica still remained, till Mr. Kerr (assistant surgeon to 
the civil hospital at Bengal) transmitted an account of this sub- 
stance, which completely removed every doubt respecting its 
origin. In this account we are told, that he not only carefully 
@ Mr. Kerr says, if the Terra Japonica were extracted from this sia it would 
be twenty times dearer than in the present sales. Vide |. c. 
* Hence the following lines: 
Quis foliis credat commixta calce tenellis, 
Cam fructu hoc Indos vesci, unde ore cruento. 
Perpureum ejiciunt succum, tam dentibus atris 
Horrendum arringunt, & dentibus ore minantur? 
¢ Vide Misc. Nat. Cur. Dec. 2. Ann. 4. Obs. 3. & Dec. 2. Ann. 3, p. 8. 
+ The derivation of the word Catechu seems to favour this opinion; Cate, in the 
oriental language, signifies a tree, and Chiu, juice. 
According to the Linnean nomenclature we have no genus under the name 
_ Acacia. But the Mimosas are very numerous, and that most known in Europe is 
the M, pudica, or humble sensitive plant, and the remarkable contractions which 
