ilea] 



€§t ftreagurg ai Mtimiw. 



618 



are purgative and emetic, six or eight being 

 sufficient, it is said, to produce the latter 

 effect. The beautiful white wood is much 

 used for inlaying, and birdlime is obtained 

 from the bark. It has been stated re- 

 cently by M. J. Pierre, that the young stems 

 are gathered in Morbihan by the peasants, 

 and made use of as a cattle-food from the 

 end of November to April with great suc- 

 cess. The stems are dried, and having 

 been bruised are given as food to cows 

 three times a day. They are found to be 

 very wholesome and very productive of 

 good milk, and the butter made from it is 

 excellent. The common Holly is the badge 

 of the Drummonds. 



J. paraguayensis is characterised as a 

 species by its perfectly smooth, ovate, 

 lanceolate unequally-serrated leaves, and 

 by having much-branched racemes of flow- 

 ers, the subdivisions of which are some- 

 what umbellate, and by its slightly hairy 

 calyx. The leaves of the Mate, the name 

 by which it is known in South America, 

 are from four to five inches long. The 

 Mate occupies the same important posi- 

 tion in the domestic economy of South 

 America, as the Chinese tea does in this 

 country, and it is calculated that it is con- 

 sumed in that country to the extent of 

 about 8,000,000 lbs. annually. It has been 

 in use for about a century and a half, the 

 practice having been adopted from the 

 aboriginal people. The leaves are prepared 

 by drying and roasting, not in the manner 

 of Chinese teas, but large branches are cut 

 off the plants and placed on hurdles over 

 a wood fire until sufficiently roasted ; the 



paraguayensis. 



branches are then placed on a hard floor 

 and beaten with sticks; the dried leaves 

 are thus knocked off and reduced to a 

 powder, which is collected, made into 

 packages, and is ready for use. There are 

 three sorts known in the South American 

 markets : the Caa-Cuys, which is the half- 

 expanded leaf-buds: the Caa-Miri, the leaf 

 torn from its midrib and veins, without 



roasting ; and the Caa-Guaza or Yerva de 

 Palosof the Spaniards, the whole leaf with 

 the petioles and small branches roasted. It 

 is prepared for drinking by putting a small 

 quantity, about a teaspoonful, into a gourd 

 or cup, with a little sugar ; the drinking 

 tube is then inserted, and boiling water 

 poured on the Mate; when sufficiently cool, 

 the infusion is sucked up through the 

 tube. It has an agreeable, slightly aro- 

 matic odour, is rather bitter to the taste, 

 and very refreshing and restorative to the 

 human frame after enduring great fatigue. 

 It is almost impossible for those accus- 

 tomed to it to leave it off. It acts in some 

 degree as an aperient and diuretic, and if 

 taken in over-doses, it occasions diseases 

 , similar to those produced by strong 

 liquors. It contains the same active prin- 

 ciple as tea and coffee, called theine, but 

 not their volatile and empyreumatic oils. 



It is stated that /. Gongonha and I. thee- 

 zans are also employed in Brazil as tea, 

 and they are described in common with 

 /. paraguayensis as being valuable diu- 

 retics and diaphoretics. The leaves of J. 

 paraguayensis and several others are used 

 by dyers ; the unripe fruits of I.Macoucoua 

 abound in tannin, and, bruised in a ferrugi- 

 neous mud, are used in dyeing cotton, act- 

 ing something like galls. [B. C] 



ILLAIREA. A genus of Loasacem from 

 central America, of which the only species 

 I. canarinoides is a climber, with much the 

 habit and aspect of Caiophora lateritia, but 

 having the ovate oblong keeled petals so 

 arranged as to form a bell-shaped flow- 

 er, bearing considerable resemblance to 

 that of Canarina. The leaves are cordate 

 or fiddle-shaped, deeply pinnatifid with 

 toothed lobes, and furnished, as are the 

 stems, with virulent stinging hairs; the 

 flowers are nodding, borne on long axil- 

 lary peduncles, and of a cinnabar or brick- 

 red colour, with blue stamens. There are 

 five concave half-boatshaped nectary scales 

 alternating with the petals, bearing on 

 their back a couple of seta?, and standing 

 in front of the scales, two before each, 

 long filiform staminodia, converging in a 

 cone over the style, which has five hemi- 

 spherical corpuscules at its base. Be- 

 yond this there is little besides the cam 

 panulate form of the corolla to separate 

 Illairea from Caiophora. [T. MJ 



ILLECEBRACE^E. (Paronychiece, Her- 

 niarice, Knotioorts.) A natural order of 

 dicotyledons belonging to Lindley's silenal 

 alliance of hypogynous Exogens. Herba- 

 ceous or somewhat shrubby plants with 

 opposite or alternate often clustered ses- 

 sile stipuled leaves, and minute flowers ; 

 sepals three to five, distinct or ovuled; 

 petals small, sometimes none ; stamens 

 opposite the sepals, if equal to them in 

 number; ovary superior; styles two to 

 five; seeds either numerous and attached 

 to a free central placenta, or solitary and 

 pendulous from a cord attached to a basal 

 placenta ; embryo curved in albumen. Na- 

 tives of barren places chiefly in Europe 

 and the north of Africa. Their properties 



