3*8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1887. 
" Les feuilles du sommet des rameaux sont parfaite- 
ment opposees, un tres-leger bourrelet transversal 
passe du peiiole d'un cote du remeau au petiole 
de l'autre cot6. La base des rameaux offre des 
feuilles, alternes, ordiuairemeut assez rapprochees, 
deux par deux, pour faire voir que cette disposition 
n'est qu'un emplacement." 
AVe have been also informed recently (June, 1887), 
by Dr. Anton Stecker, that he saw stately trees of 
catha near korata on the lake of Tana, Abyssinia. 
And again, another highly competent authority, Dr. 
B. Glaser, now (June, 1887) at Prague, tells us that 
the plant is termed Kat in Southern Arabia, Tsat 
or Tschat in the Abyssinian idiom of Amhara. In 
the countries on the lake of Tana, they call it also 
Kut es Sakihin. Iu a letter to Professor Euting of 
Strassburg, Dr. Glaser states that in Abyssinia the 
area of catha is limited to those districts south of 
the lake of Tsana. The most northern region where 
catha is to be met with in Arabia is apparently a 
place north of Sana ; it succeeds best in the valleys 
of 'Uppas and 'Afis, south of Sana, as well as in 
the mountains of Yemen at elevations ranging from 
2200 to 2400 feet. 
In Abyssinia they chew the young leaves of catha, 
either fresh or dried, or they use their infusion sweet- 
ened by means of honey. According to Dr. Stecker, 
only the Mahometans chew the drug ; he is of 
opinion that the plant was taken to Yemen by the 
Mahometans of South Abyssinia. 
In 1859 James Vaughan, Assistant Surgeon, Civil 
and Port Surgeon at Aden, mentioned kat among 
other drugs observed at Aden. He speaks, in the 
Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. xii. (1859, Nov. 1), p. 268, 
of the strong predilection which the Arabs have for 
kat ; the quantity used in Aden alone averages about 
280 camel-loads annually. The exclusive privilege of 
selling it is farmed by the Government for 1500 
rupees per year. 
Captain Hunter, in 1877, informed one of us (F.) 
that in the previous year 1200 camel-loads of kat found 
their way to Aden, and that 8000 rupees were paid 
for the privilege of collecting duty on the commodity. 
Vaughan gives a good representation of two bundles 
of kat, viz. " Subbare Kat." about 6 inches (14 centi- 
metres) long, and Muktaree Kat," about half that 
size, and states that the former is considered of 
superior quality. 
In the interior of the peninsula the use of kat 
seems not to be known. We are informed, for instance, 
by Professor Euting, that, in December, 1883, in his 
journey in Arabia, he was told at Hajel by people 
belonging to the tribe of the Kahtani that with 
them, in the Wadi ed Dawasir ('about 19? to 22°< 
N. lat. and 45° E. of Greenwich), kat chewing was 
not practised at all. 
Another of the recent explorers of the interior of 
Arabia, Dr. Glaser, on the other hand, informed Pro- 
fessor Euting, that in the valley just named, as well 
as in the Nedjran (18° N. lat), kat i e., chiefly its 
young leaves, was chewed when Dr. Glaser paid a 
visit to those regions; he himself chewed the drug, 
which, however, he never appreciated very much. 
From all the foregoing statements, * it appears that 
catha is much appreciated in Yemen as well as in 
the interior of north-eastern Africa. In a description 
of the island of Perim, f in speaking about the Arabs, 
the author says : — " They also frequently come across 
the straits in canoes with fresh provisions of all 
kinds for sale They also sometimes bring 
the leaves of a shrub called Kat, a drug much used 
by the Arabs and Somalia as a pleasurable excitant, 
the leaves and tender shoots being said, when chewed, 
to produce hilarity of spirits and an agreeable state 
of wakefulness." 
Another statement \ is to the effect that the leaves 
* We omit a few others of very little interest which 
are mentioned by Friedrich Tiedemann, ' Geschichte 
des Tabaks und anderor ahnlicher Genussmittel,' Frank- 
furt, 1854, 429. 
t The Geor/raphical Magazine, November 1, 1877, p. 
291. 
} Preussisches Hanuclmrhive, 1875, ii., 404. 
are shipped at Berbera, on the Somali coast, for 
Yemen, where they find a good market ; the people 
there chewing them say that they have an action 
similar to that of opium, but milder. 
As the tree or shrub is also largely cultivated in 
the interior of southern Arabia, mostly in gardens 
along with coffee, bundles of twigs tied together with 
strips of bark find their way to Aden. The effects 
of the leaves being the same as those of strong 
Chinese green tea, a synod of learned Mussulmans 
issued a decree acknowledging that it was perfectly 
lawful to use kat, as it neither injured the health nor 
hindered the proper observance of religious duties. It 
produces wakefulness and watchfulness, so that a man 
may fulfil the duties of a sentry all irgbt without 
a feeling of drowsiness.* 
Catha appears to have been introduced some time ago 
in European temperate houses ; in 1867, the plant 
flowering in the botanical garden of Basel, Dr. Christ 
availed himself of the opportunity of examining exhuast- 
ively the floral organs of catha, which he figured at 
the same time in the Archiv. der Pharmacie, vol. cxli. 
(1870), p. 67-71. In an additional note, in the same 
periodical, cciii. (1873), p. 52, Dr. Christ very accurately 
described the bluntly conical capsule of catha, as 
ripened in the botanical garden of Lissabon. It is 
triangular or quadrangular, having three or four de- 
hiscent valves, the whole fruit being 6 or 8-celled. 
Dr Christ also pointed out the peculair form of the 
arillus in the very small seeds of catha. 
We may state here that one of us has repeatedly 
observed the living plant in the beautiful garden of 
Mr. Thomas Hanbury at La Mortola (Palazzo Orengo), 
near Mentone. The small stipules, as pointed out 
by Bentham and Hooker, I. c, which Dr. Christ failed 
to notice in his specimens, distinctly occur in the 
shrub as growing at La Mortola. The largest leaves 
to be seen there are 11 centimetres (4^ inches) in 
length by 7§ centimetres (3 inches) wide; in some 
shoots they are opposite, in others alternate. We 
have branches before us showing both kinds of the 
arrangement of leaves. The petiole does not exceed 
1 centimetre in length, but usually reaches but half 
a centimetre. The margins of the leaf, on each half, 
display, in the largest leaves, about forty short blunt 
teeth, endiug with a glandular organ. Perhaps these 
glands are more developed or more active in the 
East. In the fresh leaves of La Mortola we failed in 
perceiving any marked taste or aroma, whereas Botta, 
as mentioned above, alluded in high terms to the 
pleasant smell and taste of kat. Forskal, on the other 
hand, was not at all aware of these virtues of the 
leaves. In Aden, as Professor Schar, Zurich, was in- 
formed by Mr. Escher, a correspondent of his anti- 
aphrodisiac powers are now attributed to catha. 
It would appear that the climate and soil of Mr. 
Hanbury's estate at La Mortola, on the Mediterranean, 
are very congenial to catha ; it has been most luxuriant- 
ly growing and flowering there for nearly twenty 
years, forming a few slender bushes 6 metres ^ about 
18 feet ) high ; the largest stem is 21 centimetres in 
circumference (nearly 3 inches in diameter ) at a dis- 
tance of 10 centimetres from the earth. One of us 
collected there, in April, some flowering branches. 
Mr. Hanbury says it is in flower for months in the 
winter and spring, yet it has never fruited with him. 
It was introduced in that garden by the late Daniel 
Hanbury in 1868, as we are kindly informed by his 
brother, Mr. Thomas Hanbury. 
The fine plate, No. 30, of Richard's ' Botantical 
Atlas ' to Lefebvre, Petit et Quartin-Dillon's Voyage 
en Abyssinie,' gives an excellent figure of catha. 
The identity of the Mortola plant is, therefore, un- 
questionable; still we never met there with so narrow 
' * Pharm. Journ., xiii. (1883), 840, from Produce 
Markets Review, March 24, 1883. An abstract will 
also be found in Just's Botaaischcr Jahresbericht, 1883, 
p. 390 No. 61, as well us in the ' Year-Book of Pharm- 
acy,' 1883, p. 219. The same statements also occur 
in Captain Hunter's ' Account of British Settlement of 
Aden in Arabia,' London, 1877, p- 139. All this second- 
hand historical information is due to the writings of Sil- 
vestre de Sacy and d' Herbelot. 
