114 TEA SUBSTITUTES OF MAURITIUS. 



plant, discovered by him in Chili, where he has found it, he says, at 33° 

 of the South Pole. This shrub is a vulnerary and depurative. The natives 

 pound the leaves and apply them as a poultice on their wounds. The 

 decoction arrests dysentery, and the infusion of the roots excites vomiting. 

 Some use an infusion of its ashes as a purgative. 



The leaves, according to the Abbe Molina, are considered as a powerful 

 vermifuge, and one of the best stomachics. They are used as an infusion, 

 and their aromatic flavour causes them to be preferred by some persons to 

 tea, for which they may be substituted. In Chili they are so used, instead 

 of the Chinese beverage, under the name of Jesuit's tea. 



The Culen has lately acquired a great reputation in the Mauritius as a 

 medicinal substance. It is to the kind attention of the Hon. M. Lemiere 

 that we are indebted for the knowledge of this plant — the existence of which 

 in the colony was no longer suspected by us — as well as for the manner of 

 employing its leaves and stems in diseases of the respiratory organs. 



The Culen is taken as an infusion in the shape of tea ; it is, according to 

 those who have been under the necessity of taking it, a sovereign remedy- 

 in asthma, oppressions of the chest, and other irritations of the bronchias 

 and lungs, which it relieves and dispels almost instantaneously. 



The leaves are also used dried, and afterwards smoked like tobacco. 



Faham or Faam, an orchidaceous plant (Angraecum fragrans), is found 

 in the interior of the island. According to notes communicated by M. 

 Fleurot, the crystals obtained from it are in small groups, having a sweet 

 aromatic odour. Examined with the microscope they represent rectangular 

 prisms, in round groups of about two millimetres in diameter ; they are, 

 soluble in boiling water, extremely so in boiling alcohol and ether, but con- 

 siderably less so in the same liquids cold. 



Virey wrote about the Faham in 1820 and 1826 in the Journal de 

 Pharmacie ; and Dr. Giraudy, who studied it seriously, discovered, in the 

 aromatic principle of this plant, a diffusible stimulant capable of deadening 

 nervous sensibility ; in the bitter principle, an excellent stimulant to 

 revive the strength of the nutritive organs ; and in the mucilage, a demulcent 

 to relax the tissues. He therefore considered it as a powerful medicinal 

 agent, and likely to be employed with success either to assist digestion, to 

 soothe coughs and pains of the chest, to remove spasms and oppressions, 

 or to promote expectoration in colds, hooping coughs, fits of asthma, and 

 pulmonary phthisis, whenever the nervous irritation and inflammation 

 predominates. The odour of the dried plant is peculiar, and resembles 

 that of the Tonquin bean ; the infusion or syrup is very pleasant. Not 

 only here but elsewhere it has been used in infusion, as a beverage, in 

 substitution for Chinese tea. 



Jamaica Vervaest, or Verveine bleue. — The leaves of Stachjtarpheta 

 Jamaicensis, when fresh, are applied to ulcers, but when dried, they form a 

 bad kind of tea, known, and sometimes sold, as Brazilian tea. 



The du Mexique, Botnjs, Herle pipi. — This plant (Chenopodiwn 

 ambrosioides) is common in the island. All the parts of the plant have a 



