92 
Tea. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I   February,  1903. 
sort  of  beverage,  the  mere  mention  of  which  transports  the  imagina- 
tion into  a  realm  of  things  dear  to  the  heart.  The  third  meal  of  the 
day — the  family  meal,  the  sociable  meal — is  often  called  tea. 
IX.  SUBSTITUTES. 
Tea  or  a  similar  hot  decoction  is  used  in  nearly  all  «parts  of  the 
world,  by  savage  as  well  as  by  civilized  man.  In  the  parts  of  the 
world  where  tea  and  coffee  have  become  known,  substitutes  which 
do  not  contain  theine  are  rarely  used  except  when  the  theine-con- 
taining  products  are  denied  through  stress  of  poverty,  embargo  in 
war  time,  or  some  other  circumstance.  During  the  American  Rev- 
olution our  people  used  New  Jersey  tea,  not  because  they  preferred 
it,  but  because  tea  and  coffee  were  unobtainable.  The  substitutes 
for  tea  divide  into  two  classes — those  which  contain  theine,  and 
those  which  do  not.  The  most  important  of  those  containing  theine 
is  yerba  mate  or  South  American  tea  or  Paraguay  tea,  made  of  the 
toasted  leaves  of  several  species  of  holly  growing  in  Paraguay, 
Northern  Argentina  and  Southern  Brazil.  It  is  the  principal  drink 
in  a  large  part  of  that  region. 
Coffee-tea  or  Sumatra  tea  is  made  of  the  toasted  leaves  of  the 
coffee-tree,  which  are  said  to  contain  a  larger  percentage  of  theine 
than  do  the  beans  themselves.  The  natives  of  Sumatra  prefer  the 
leaf  to  the  bean  because  it  contains  more  bitter  principle  and  is 
more  nutritious.  In  the  Sumatran  lowlands  the  coffee-tfee  is  grown 
for  the  leaf  instead  of  the  berry,  because  in  that  region  it  does  not 
yield  good  quantities  of  the  latter. 
Kola  and  guarana  also  contain  theine,  and  are  used  in  infusions ; 
the  former  being  used  as  a  masticatory,  also. 
A  great  number  of  plants  which  do  not  not  contain  theine  are 
used  as  substitutes.  In  North  America  the  principal  substitutes 
have  been  Labrador  or  James's  tea  [Ledum  palustre  and  L.  latifolium 
— Ericaceae) ;  mountain  tea  from  the  creeping  wintergreen,  checker- 
berry  or  partridge -berry  (Gaultheria  procumbens — Ericaceae);  Os- 
wego tea  (Monarda  didyma — Labiatae) ;  New  Jersey  tea  {Ceanothus 
amencanus — Rhamnaceae),  and  the  famous  Appalachian  tea,  or  black 
drink  of  the  North  Carolina  Indians,  made  from  the  leaves  of  the 
cassena  or  yaupon  (Ilex  casstne — Aquifoliaceae),  made  also  from  the 
dahoon  holly  {Ilex  dahoori),  and  the  inkberry  (Prinos  glaber — Aqui- 
foliaceae), and  the  withe-rod  ( Viburnum  cassinoides — Caprifoliaceae). 
