Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances

nothing but compositions and imitations. The librarian of the town of Cahors-a personage half botanist, half savant—having discovered, in November last, a native plant which furnished an infusion resembling exactly in colour, aroma, and taste, the infusion of black China tea, came to Paris, and wrote thus to the Emperor :-"Sire: Napoleon I. endowed France with an indigenous sugar; your Majesty may now endow the country with an indigenous tea." Two days afterwards, one of the officers of the household invited M. Perrie, the botanist, to call and see him ; he tasted the tea, and then conducted him to the Ministry of Agriculture. A committee of examination was appointed; and M. Perrie, on his return to Cahors, sent them a package of his dried wild herbs. The committee spent several months in its investigation, and has but lately made its report. The Minister of Agriculture has just written to M. Perrie, that, besides the qualities of taste, smell, and colour, which are those of the best China teas, the new infusion is tonic and slightly astringent. The grand question of price, he added, is all that requires to be elucidated. The botanist replies, that the plant is a common and, thus far, unserviceable weed, and that, even if cultivated, it may be produced at the price of twenty cents a pound. The Presse is delighted with this discovery, and with the prospects it affords the poor. But if it is to be considered a boon in a country where the taste for it has still to be created, and where even a prejudice exists against it, of how much greater value will it be to countries where the taste is already formed, and where the annual tea bill is counted by

millions of pounds sterling? One pound of the weed yields five hundred cups, and requires two minutes for its preparation; so that French tea is not only much cheaper than Chinese, but it goes four or five times as far.

Under the name of Bois Dine, the fruit of a species of Myrtus (probably M. ligustrina, of Swartz, or M. cerastina, of Vahl) is used by the Dominicans of Hayti to prepare a sort of tea.

The little tea-plant (Myrtus nummularia), a species nearly allied to the classic myrtle, is commonly used at the Falkland Islands as a substitute for the Chinese herb, to which many of the Guachos prefer it. Singularly enough, the first settlers of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land selected a shrub of the same natural order (a widely different one from that to which the true tea belongs), and brewed tea from it to a great extent. The plant is also said to be diuretic, and might prove useful in medicine; for

this purpose the young leaves should be gathered

and dried separately, or, rather, scattered on sheets of paper and exposed to the sun or a moderate fire, after which they should be kept free from damp.

The leaves of Lycium barbarum, known in Northern Africa as tea-plant, have been recommended as a substitute for the Chinese plant. The Cistus albidus, the wild tea, and other plants of Algeria, are also used as substitutes by the natives.

Elichrysum nudifolium, under the name of Kaffir tea, and E. serpyllifolium, Less., Hottentots' tea, are used for making an infusion in South Africa.

The leaves of the striped-flowered psoralea (Psoralea glandulosa), known under the name of culen, are, according to the Abbé Molina, considered as a powerful vermifuge, and one of the best stomachics. They are used as an infusion, and their aromatic flavour causes them to be preferred by some persons to tea, for which they may be substituted. In Chili they are so used, instead of the Chinese beverage, under the name of Jesuits' tea. The culen has lately acquired a great reputation in the Mauritius as a medicinal substance.

It is drunk as an infusion in the shape of tea; and is, according to those who have been under the necessity of taking it, a sovereign remedy in asthma, oppressions of the chest, and other irritations of the bronchiæ and lungs, which it relieves and dispels almost instantaneously. The leaves are also used dried, and afterwards smoked like tobacco. Faham or Faam, an orchidaceous plant (Angræcum fragrans), is found in the interior of the island of Mauritius. Virey wrote about the faham, in 1820 and 1826, in the Journal de Pharmacie; and Dr. Giraudy, who studied it seriously, discovered, in the aromatic principle of this plant, a diffusible stimulant capable of deadening nervous sensibility; in the bitter principle, an excellent stimulant to revive the strength of the nutritive organs; and in the mucilage, a demulcent to relax the tissues. He, therefore, considered it as a powerful medicinal agent, and likely to be employed with success either to assist digestion, to soothe coughs and pains of the chest, to remove spasms and oppressions, or to promote expectoration in colds, hooping

coughs, fits of asthma, and pulmonary phthisis, whenever the nervous irritation and inflammation predominate. The odour of the dried plant is peculiar, and resembles that of the Tonquin bean; the infusion or syrup is very pleasant. It has been used, in infusion, as a beverage, in substitution for Chinese tea.

The late Professor Johnston, in his " Chemistry of Common Life," collected a few notes upon tea substitutes; but the list he published was very imperfect, and did not include more than about thirty species of plants stated to be so used. The following list will be found to be much more complete, embracing, as it does, more than three times that number :—

LIST OF SUBSTITUTES FOR CHINA TEA.

(UNLESS WHERE OTHERWISE STATED, THE LEAVES ARE USED.)