Mr. J. Miers on the History of the ' Mate' Plant. 227 



From his long residence in the country, and his great expe- 

 rience in all that relates to the preparation of Yerba, no one had 

 better opportunities than Bonpland to identify the real species 

 from which that article of consumption is manufactured. 



The system of the merchants in their agreement with the 

 'habilitadores ' who undertake the quest of Yerba in the distant 

 forests of Paraguay, the manner of hiring the Indian labourers 

 for this work, the preparations for feeding them during their 

 long bivouac, the mode of collecting and drj'ing the branches, 

 roasting and separating the leaves, pounding them, and packing 

 the Yerba, thus prepared, in hide bags, are well described in Mr. 

 Lambert's memoir on the Ilex Paraguayensis, and in Mr. Robert- 

 son's ' Letters from Paraguay, and Francia's Reign of Terror.* 

 The same rude methods were employed in all the Spanish Mis- 

 sions, and also in the Brazilian settlements, up to a very recent 

 period ; but of late years more improved processes, upon a much 

 larger scale, have been brought into use about Curitiba ; but in 

 the province of Rio Grande the old system is still continued. At 

 Curitiba, I am told, the leaves are now roasted more equally, in 

 cast-iron pans set in brickwork, much after the manner in which 

 tea is prepared in China, except that the pans are much larger. 

 When the leaves are sufficiently dried, they are pounded in 

 stamping-mills worked by water-power or steam-engines, and 

 packed in bags by means of presses. The quality of the Yerba 

 has thus been much improved. 



We owe to St.-Hilaire the first outline of the botanical features 

 of the tree, growing about Curitiba, that yields the Yerba : it 

 was only a short diagnosis, published in 1822 *, when he ascer- 

 tained it to be a species of Ilex, which he considered identical 

 with the Paraguay plant, and which was named inaccurately, 

 through a typographical error. Ilex Paraguariensisf, a name he 

 afterwards abandoned in 1824 for that of Ilex Matte J; he, how- 

 ever, resumed the former name in 1833^. In the meanwhile, 

 Mr. Lambert, in 1824 |1, gave a much fuller description of the 

 plant, accompanied by a good drawing made from specimens 

 sent from Buenos Ayres, and probably obtained from one of the 

 Spanish Missions : he called it Ikx Paraguensis. 



* Mem. Mus. ix. 351 ; Spreng. Syst. iv. cur. post. p. 48. 



t Dr. Reisseck (Fl. Bras. 28. p. 115) thinks the word " Paraguariensis 

 ita forsan rectius scribitur ])ro Paraguayensis ;" but this cannot be. The 

 word is unquestionably used adjectively for the eountn,- Paraguay. There 

 is no place known l)y the name of Paraguari. St.-Hilaire found his plant 

 near Paranagua, but that could never have suggested the word in question. 

 It was at first, no doubt, a mere typographical error, which St.-Hilaire did 

 not think necessary to correct afterwards. 



X Hist, des Plantes remarq. de Bresil et Paraguay, i. Introd. p. xli. 



§ Vov. Diamant, i. 2/3. || Lambert, Pin. 



15* 



