110 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
tab. 11. f. 7. — v.v, in Montibus Organensibus, prov. Rio de 
Janeiro. 
The deseription above cited is that of the male plant ; but the 
plant found by me had hermaphrodite flowers and fruit. In 
this the leaves are alternate, sometimes opposite, rarely ternate, 
very coriaceous, with immersed nerves, which are scarcely pro- 
minent below : the upper surface is convex, sub-polished, with 
cartilaginous margins, which are very revolute ; the midrib is 
immersed and sulcate above, prominulent below ; the lower 
surface of the leaves is paler and opake, being densely covered 
with very minute, whitish, punctate scales, seen only under the 
lens : they want the larger black dots found in the preceding 
species. The leaves are 2^-21 inches long, 10-11 lines broad, 
on a somewhat slender petiole 6-9 lines long. The inflorescence 
5 is axillaiy, consisting of 2-5 fasciculated 1-flowered pedun- 
cles 2-3 lines long: the calyx is 5-toothed; the five petals are 
oblong, obtuse, rotately expanded, 3 lines long, 1| line broad, 
slightly coalescent at their base by the adhesion of the alternate 
filaments, which are as long as the petals, and in like manner 
expanded : the ovary is oval, 5-celled, each cell having one sus- 
pended ovule : the stigma is bi’oadly mammiform and sub- 
5-lobed : the drupe is oval, purplish red, fleshy, 5-7 lines long, 
4-6 lines diam., crowned with a large conical stigma, and con- 
taining five osseous grooved nuts, each 1 -seeded : the embryo is 
minute, near the summit of the albumen. 
It is probable that the Ilex rivularis, Gardn., and I. affinis, 
Gardn., both from the province of Goyaz, are theiniferous. Dr. 
Reisseck considers the one to be a mere variety of the other ; 
but they appear to me sufficiently distinct. In the former the 
leaves are much broader, stouter, with a more revolute and 
thicker cartilaginous margin ; the nerves are fewer, coarser, more 
distant and more divaricated ; the petiole is shorter and broader. 
In the latter the racemes are more elongated, more spicated, and 
the pedicels much longer ; the flowers are nearly half the size of 
the former, with a glabrous (not a pubescent) calyx. These 
differences cannot be sexual, for in both my specimens the 
flowers are 5 and 4-merous. 
All the above species, excepting the last-mentioned, are extra- 
tropical, or scarcely reach the limit of the southern solstice, and 
they all appear to contain the peculiar principle {theine) which 
exists in Chinese tea and in coffee. The Yerba de Paraguay, 
like coffee, owes its refreshing qualities not only to the presence 
of theine, but to a peculiar acid. Dr. Stenhouse found 2 per 
cent, of theine in Congou tea, and O' 75 to 1 per cent, of the 
same principle in coffee — called also caffeine, both having been 
