CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
91 
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, whei’e it becomes blended with the main chain 
of the Serra do Mar, that skirts the coasts of the southern pro- 
vinces of Brazil. The Yerba-tree is found more or less abun- 
dantly in all the valleys that branch out of this extensive range 
of mountains, but principally, as before mentioned, in the 
northern portion of Paraguay. Wilcox, in his ^History of Buenos 
Ayres,’ mentions three kinds of Yerba known in commerce — 
" the Cadcuy, Cadmini, and Cadguazu the first is there said to 
be prepared 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 prepared from different 
species of Ilex. The Guarani general term. Cad, signifies a leaf 
or branch; and in the Missions, the names of Cad-riri and 
Cad-una or Cauna are given to the difFerent kinds of Bex. The 
prepared leaves have always borne the name of Yerba among the 
Spaniards, its infusion being made in a peculiar kind of cup 
called a Mate. In the Portuguese Missions the Yerba is called 
Cauna, and in most of the Brazilian provinces it is known by 
the name of Congonha*. 
Under the Spanish government, the principal harvests of 
Yerba were made in the valleys bordering upon the river Ypane, 
a tributary of the Bio Paraguay, — the produce there collected 
being conveyed to the town of Villareal, at its mouth, in lat. 
23° 30' S., and thence transported down the River Paraguay, in 
large pontoons, to the metropolitan town Assuncion. Although 
the largest harvests were obtained in Paraguay, considerable 
quantities in addition were raised in the various settlements of 
Indians founded by the Jesuits beyond its limits. These were 
called Missions, and were thirty in number, twenty-three being 
situated between the rivers Parana and Uruguay, and seven on 
the left bank of the latter river, in the province of Entrerios. 
These, as well as all the extensive settlements in Paraguay 
proper, were at their greatest prosperity at the period of the 
expulsion of the Jesuits in 1768; but, owing to the defective 
management of the Indians under the subsequent rule of the 
Spanish authorities, the commerce in Yerba languished consider- 
ably. In 1810 the quantity raised was supposed to amount to 
N 2 
* Pronounced Congonia. 
