220 Mr. J. Miers on the History of the ' Mate' Plant, 



Paraguay Tea, the favourite beverage of the Spanish South 

 Americans. I will here detail the results of my investigations 

 into this subject, and will preface the inquiry by a short history 

 of the events which had great influence on the production and 

 trade of this article of commerce: these events are the more 

 interesting as they are in some degree connected with the bio- 

 graphy of the celebrated botanist Bon plan d, to whom I am 

 indebted for the knowledge of the true plants which produce 

 the Yerba. 



In the settlements of the Indians in Paraguay and along the 

 borders of the River Parana, under the dominion of the Spanish 

 government, administered as they were at that period by the 

 Jesuits, the preparation of the Yerba constituted the principal 

 branch of industry of the country. The plant from which the 

 Mate is prepared was first mentioned by Azara, as growing wild 

 in many parts of Paraguay. It is found in great abundance in 

 all the moist valleys of the ramifications that branch from the 

 main chain of mountains called Maracaju, which, rising in that 

 part of Paraguay bordering upon Matto Grosso, in lat. 19° S., 

 and tending S.E., divides the northern half of the country into 

 two distinct watersheds — the rivers flowing westward running 

 into the river Paraguay, and those eastward into the Parana. 

 This chain, after a length of 150 miles, suddenly takes a more 

 easterly course, and is soon cut through by the latter river at a 

 place called Sete Quedas (seven cataracts or large rapids), in 

 lat. 24° S. ; it then crosses into the Brazilian province of San 

 Paolo, through which it runs nearly due east for 300 miles, as 

 far as Curitiba, where it becomes blended with the main chain 

 of the Serra do Mar, that skirts the coasts of the southern pro- 

 vinces of Brazil. The Yerba-tree is found more or less abun- 

 dantly in all the valleys that branch out of this extensive range 

 of mountains, but principally, as before mentioned, in the 

 northern portion of Paraguay. Wilcox, in his 'History of Buenos 

 Ayres,' mentions three kinds of Yerba known in commerce — 

 " the Cadcuy, Cadmini, and Cadguazu :" the first is there said to 

 be prepared from the young leaves recently expanded from the 

 buds ; the second is from the full-grown leaves, carefully picked 

 and separated from the twigs; and the third from the older 

 leaves, carelessly broken up with the young branchlets : all being 

 half-roasted by a crude process. But I have always been of 

 opinion that these several qualities were prepared fi-om different 

 species of Ilex. The Guarani general term, Cad, signifies a leaf 

 or branch; and in the Missions, the names of Cad-riri and 

 Cad-una or Cauna are given to the diff^erent kinds of Ilex. The 

 prepared leaves have always borne the name of Yerba among the 

 Spaniards, its infusion being made in a peculiar kind of cup 



