ON THE USE OF COCA LEAVES. 
33 
and by the experience I have gained from observing, for a number of years, chalcedony 
and amber, I am able to distinguish sufficiently between mechanical formations and for¬ 
mations of a vegetable origin. I have not yet attained any results with respect to gra¬ 
phite, but in diamonds I have found numerous foreign bodies enclosed, of which if they 
cannot be said to be evidently and undoubtedly vegetable in their origin, it would on the 
other hand be difficult to deny their vegetable nature altogether. The careful figures 
which will accompany my essay will enable others to judge on this point, and will, if 
nothing else, open up the way for further researches .—Journal of Botany. 
A NEW OIL-SEED FOE THE COLONIES. 
Madia is a genus of South American herbaceous plants, belonging to the Natural 
Order Composite, one of the species of which, Madia saliva , is of value for the oil 
yielded by its seeds upon pressure. It is a native of Chili, where it has long been 
cultivated for the sake of its oil, which is of excellent quality. It grows like the Aster; 
the blossom is yellow, and put together in clusters ; the stalk is from 3 to 5 feet high, 
grows compact, and requires a sandy soil. The seed is like that of the sunflower, but 
much smaller. 
In Chili the oil is used intead of olive oil, the finer quality for edible and the grosser 
for illuminating purposes. It was introduced from Chili into Asia Minor with great 
success, thence into Algeria and the south part of France, and into some warm parts of 
Germany, and is said to be more abundant in oil than any.plant introduced into Europe. 
It attracted attention in Europe previously to 1839, in consequence of Mr. Bosch, the 
superintendent of the gardens of the King of Wurtemberg, having successfully cultivated 
it in Germany on a large scale. He found that, as compared with rape and poppies, the 
amount of oil yielded per German acre was as follows:— 
Eape yields 240 lb. of oil per German acre. 
Poppies „ 264 „ „ 
Madia ,, 242 „ „ 
This oil does not congeal at 19° below zero of Beaumur, but only becomes a little less 
fluid, which makes it a valuable material for keeping machines in order. 
In Europe, the seeds are sown in October, and from four to six pounds are required per 
German acre. The crop is of the easiest management, and the only precaution to be 
taken by the cultivator, which it is important to notice, is, that the seeds must be thrashed 
out soon after the crop is cut, otherwise the glutinous stalks, when heaped up, ferment 
and injure the seeds. 
The Madia is known in Germany as the “ Olbegende Medikraut,” or “ Olmud,” and 
seed may be had of Messrs. Booth’s successors, No. 32, Grosse Beichenstrasse, Hamburg. 
— Technologist. t 
ON THE USE OF COCA LEAVES. 
BY DP.. ABL, OP ZARA.* 
The Novara expedition enables me to speak of one of the most proved narcotic sub¬ 
stances, well qualified to become to soldiers and sailors as faithful a companion as tobacco 
is now. T . . 
It is the Coca, the leaves of different varieties of Erythroxylon Coca , Lam., a shrub 
which is cultivated to a great extent in South America, especially in Brazil, Bolivia, 
Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, New Granada, Guiana, as well as in the East and West Indies. 
These leaves have rather a good taste, and several very distinguished travellers, asPoppig 
(see Sir William Hooker’s ‘Journal of Botany’), Weddell, Von Martius, etc., have pro¬ 
nounced very favourably as to the effect of chewing them. It has been proved that the} 
show in flavour as well as in taste some analogy to the inferior kinds of tea. At the 
same time, they are somewhat bitter-aromatic, not inconsiderably exciting the secretion 
of saliva. 
* From an article on Troops’ Beverages, in 
by E. Goeze. 
VOL. VII. 
the *Austrian Military Journal,’ translated 
D 
