570 
Mate  or  Paraguay  Tea. 
/Am. Jour.  Pharm. 
\       Nov.,  1883. 
MATE  OR  PARAGUAY  TEA 
By  Dr.  Theodore  Peckoet. 
This  plant,  which  belongs  to  the  holly  family  (Ilicinese),  has  several 
names  in  clifTerent  parts  of  South  America.  In  the  Guarani  language  it  is 
Cad,  which  is  the  Indian  word  for  leaf.  The  prepared  leaves  w^ere  named 
by  the  Spanish  "  yerba  "  (herb),  and  the  infusion  "  mate  "  ^  from  the  native 
name  for  the  vessel  in  which  the  tea  is  made,  and  the  drug  is  now  generally 
known  as  mate  in  Brazilian  commerce,  although  the  Spaniards  call  it 
"  yerva  mate  "  or  "  yerva  de  palos."  The  name  "  congonha  "  has  been  said 
by  some  writers  to  be  applied  to  mate,  but  this  is  an  error,  for  the  Brazilians 
understand  by  the  names  "congonha  mansa"  and  "congonha  brava," 
other  trees  belonging  to  the  same  natural  order,  which  are  used  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  mate  when  it  is  not  easily  procurable. 
The  plant  was  first  briefly  described  by  St.  Hilaire,  in  1822,  when  he  gave 
to  it  the  name  Ilex  par aguariensis,  which  he  altered  in  1826,  to  Ilex  Mate, 
subsequently  publishing  the  first  name  again  in  1833  and  this  is  now  adopted 
in  the  "  Flora  Brasiliensis."  In  1824  the  plant  was  described  in  detail  by 
Lambert,  under  the  name  of  I.  paraguensis  and  the  plant  illustrated  from 
specimens  obtained  from  the  Jesuit  Missions.  The  synonyms  stand  as 
follows  : 
Ilex  par aguariensis,  St.  Hil. ;  I.  Mate,  St.  Hil.,  I.  paraguayensis,  Hooker, 
fil. ;  I.  paraguensis,  D.  Don. ;  I.  paraguariensis,  a,  obtusifolia.  Mart. ;  /?, 
acutifolia,  Mart.  ;  Cassine  Gongonha,  Kaben. ;  (7.  Oouguba,  Guibourt ;  Cho- 
melia  amara.  Veil. 
The  mate  plant  attains  the  height  of  an  apple  tree,  becoming  even  larger 
in  favorable  situations,  but  when  cultivated  and  deprived  from  time  to 
time  of  its  leaves,  it  remains  small  and  forms  a  mere  bush.  The  leaves  are 
shortly  stalked,  simple,  wedge-shaped,  obovate  or  elongate-lanceolate, 
toothed,  dark  green  above,  paler  beneath,  shining,  of  leathery  consistence, 
1  to  3  inches  long,  and  ^  to  \l  inch  broad.  The  flowers  are  axillary,  situ- 
ated on  one  to  three  times  forked  peduncles,  white,  and  of  similar  size  to 
those  of  the  common  holly.  The  calyx  consists  of  four  nearly  orbicular 
sepals  with  a  four-parted  corolla  and  four  short  stamens,  the  ovary  being 
crowned  with  a  four-lobed  stigma.  The  fruit  is  red  and  of  the  size  of  a 
pepper-corn,  containing  four  seeds  enclosed  in  a  slightly  glutinous  pulp, 
but  often  one  seed  only  is  developed.  The  home  of  the  Paraguay  tea  plant 
is  said  by  Martins  to  lie  between  18°  and  30°  S.  latitude,  but  the  district  in 
which  the  tea  grows  most  luxuriantly  is  between  21°  and  24°  S.  latitude  in 
the  watershed  of  the  Paraguay  river  on  the  west,  and  in  that  of  the  Parana 
on  the  east,  and  it  is  here  in  a  zone  between  the  Serra  Amambuhy  on  the 
south  and  the  Serra  Maracaju  on  the  north  that  the  best  and  most  highly 
prized  mate  is  prepared. 
1  The  word  is  not  accented,  as  sometimes  written.— T.  P. 
