ON THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF ILEX, ETC. 73 



dores ' who undertake the quest of Yerba in the distant forests of Para- 

 guay, the manner of hiring the Indian labourers for this work, the 

 preparations for feeding them during their long bivouac, the mode of 

 collecting and drying 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 Paraguay ensis, and 

 in Mr. Robertson's ' Letters from Paraguay,' and Fiancia's ' Reign of Ter- 

 ror.' 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 ascertained 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 

 Paraguariensis, a name he afterwards abandoned in 1824 for that of 

 Ilex Mate, he, however, resumed the former name in 1833. In the 

 meanwhile, Mr. Lambert, in 1824, 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 Ilex Paraguensis. 



I had always been impressed with the conviction that the different 

 qualities of Yerba brought to market were prepared from different 

 species of Ilex; and hence the doubt occurred to me whether the plant 

 described by St. Hilaire from Curitiba be really identical with the true 

 Paraguayan type. The grounds for this surmise were founded upon the 

 dissimilar colour of the two Yerbas, the difference in their flavour, and 

 the higher price always obtained for the Yerba de Paraguay compared 

 with the Yerba de Paranagua. The short diagnosis of St.-Hilaire an- 

 swered equally to several species that I had seen. Sir William Hooker, 

 in 1842 (Lond. Journ. Bot. i. 30), gave a very interesting account of the 

 Yerba, describing also the mate or cup, formed out of a small calabash 

 (cuy), in which the infusion is prepared, and out of which it is drawn 

 into the mouth through a homUlla ; he added the characters of the dif- 

 ferent varieties, which he considered identical with the Ilex Para- 

 guayensis, and of these he gave two excellent figures with analyses. This 

 memoir, instead ef solving my doubts, only rendered the question still 

 more enigmatical ; for in it is classed, as a mere variety, a plant which 



