32 ON THE PARAGUAY TEA. 
Fazenda, the leaves of it are used as tea, for which they 
are a good substitute. As three branches, with a single 
fruit on each, were all I could obtain, I have not thought it 
worth putting up specimens for general distribution."—These 
samples, be it observed, also precisely accord with Mr. 
Lambert's figure and description, and with my Paraguay 
specimens. Still was without flowering branches, till my 
wishes being known to Mr. Miers, he most kindly sent me 
the use of his specimens (accompanied by drawings), from 
the Botanical Garden at Rio, where the leaves are pretty 
extensively used for tea. This I have figured at Tas. IIL, 
and it will be seen that the leaves are much longer and 
narrower than those of the specimens from Paraguay and 
the Organ Mountains; and, moreover, the undersides are 
invariably dotted with minute black glands. This is pro- 
bably the plant of St. Hilaire. I was at first disposed to 
consider it a distinct species, and the more so, as tea pre- - 
pared at Rio, whichit frequently is, is universallyacknowledged 
to be very inferior to that of Paraguay. Further observa- 
tions, however, and the examination of specimens from Dr. © 
Gomez of Rio, with the use of which I have been favoured 
by Dr. Lindley, and which seem to be exactly intermediate 
between Mr. Miers’s specimens and those from Paraguay an 
the Organ Mountains, have satisfied me that they all are but 
varieties of one and the same plant: an opinion in which I 
am confirmed by some of the prepared leaves recently : 
brought from Rio by Mr. Gardner, and given me with the — 
remark, “ Paraguay Tea, prepared in Brazil and called by the 
Brazilians Congonha.” Here the leaves are quite entire (not 
broken as in the Paraguay samples), and they exhibit all the ` 
variations I have above alluded to. So that there is every 
reason to believe, as St. Hilaire has suggested, that the - 
inferiority of the Brazilian Paraguay foliage is due to the 
imperfect mode of preparation; as is the case with the 
Chinese Tea raised in Brazil, and even in Assam. 
From the materials above mentioned, I am enabled to 
draw up the following character and description :— 
