70 



ON THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF ILEX EMPLOYED IN THE 



PREPARATION OF THE ' YERBA DE MATE,' OR 



PARAGUAY TEA * 



BY JOHN MIERS, F.R.S., F.L.S. &C. 



Notwithstanding the seemingly authoritative evidence we have on 

 record concerning it, I have entertained a doubt for many years past in 

 regard to the plant which produces the celebrated 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 wbich 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 Bonpland, 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 Paran£, 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 coun- 

 try. The plant from which the Mat6 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 Para- 

 guay, and those eastward into the Parand. 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 provinces of Brazil. The 

 Yerba-tree is found more or less abundantly in all the valleys that branch 

 out of this extensive range of mountains, but principally, as before men- 

 tioned, in the northern portion of Paraguay. Wilcocke, in his ' History 

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

 " the Cadcuy, Cadmini, and Cadguazd :" the first is there said to be pre- 

 pared 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 pre- 



* From the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History.' 



