poorer classes of In a light gravelly The leaves are

in the sun. In They are either

the Sageretia theezans, from which the Chinese prepare an inferior kind of tea. soil the plant attains a height of 12 feet. plucked in the dry season, and well dried Abyssinia they sell at 1d. or 2d. a-pound. chewed, boiled in milk, or infused in boiling water, and, by the addition of honey, yield a pleasant beverage. They have much resemblance to Chinese tea, both in their qualities and their effects. They are bitter to the taste, possess exhilarating properties, and dispel sleep if used to excess.

The leaves of this plant are also used green. Forskäll states that the Arabs eat them green because of their property of preventing sleep. To such a degree do they exhibit this influence, that a man who chews them may stand sentry all night without feeling drowsiness. They are also regarded as an antidote to the plague; and the Arabs. believe that the plague cannot appear in places where the tree is cultivated. Botta adds to these qualities that, when fresh, the leaves are very intoxicating.†

This North African tea appears to be very extensively cultivated and used, though less so now than in ancient times; but we have no means of estimating the absolute quantity which is grown and consumed. We are entirely ignorant, also, I believe, of its exact chemical history, and do not yet know whether it belongs to the class of plants in which theine exists. Its relation to the Sageretia theezans of China renders this not unlikely.

Many other plants, of which the chemistry is unknown, are used in various countries as more or less perfect substitutes for Chinese tea. Thus, the name

Tasmanian tea is given to the dried leaves of various spe

* HARRIS-Highlands of Ethiopia, vol. ii. p. 423.

+ LINDLEY-Vegetable Kingdom, p. 587.

cies of Melaleuca and Leptospermum, belonging to the order of the Myrtaceæ, which are collected in Australia, and used by the colonists instead of Chinese tea. These trees are commonly called tea-trees, and the large tracts of country which are covered with them, tea-tree flats. The leaves of various species of Correa also, which belong to the Rutaceæ, and especially of the Correa alba, are collected and used for the same purpose. The leaves of Acana sanguisorba, a plant allied to the Rosacea, and which abounds everywhere in Tasmania, are said to be an excellent substitute for tea. In the same eastern region the leaves of the Glaphyria nitida, another of the Myrtacea-called by the Malays the Tree of Long Life, affords at Bencoolen, in Sumatra, a substitute for tea.

Faham tea, again, is the name given in Mauritius to the dried leaves of the Angræcum fragrans-a fragrant orchid. The infusion of these leaves is exceedingly pleasant to the smell, and is drunk to promote digestion, and in certain diseases of the lungs. Its fragrance is owing to the presence of coumarin, the odoriferous principle of the Tonka bean and of mellilot, described in a subsequent chapter. The leaf does not contain theine, and it is not therefore to be classed in its virtues and uses with the Chinese and Paraguay teas.

Besides all these we have North American substitutes for the China leaf, distinguished by the names of Appalachian tea, Oswego tea, Mountain tea, and New Jersey tea. We have a Mexican tea, a Brazilian tea,-the aromatic Capitao da matto,-a Santa Fé tea, an Indian, Toolsie tea and many others. Of the chemistry of all these substitutes we know next to nothing. I have therefore embodied in the following table nearly all the information we possess regarding them :

See THE ODOURS WE ENJOY.

I pass over numerous other plants which in Europe have been tried as substitutes for tea, without, however, coming into any general use, except here and there as adul terations. It is possible that some of those above mention

France.
Austria.

Northern
Europe.

Do.

ed may hereafter be discovered to contain the theine and other valuable constituents of the true tea-leaf, and may be both cultivated and advantageously used in its stead. As an adulteration, the leaves of Epilobium angustifolium are sometimes mixed with tea to the amount of 25 per cent.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE.

THE COFFEES.

Coffee used in Abyssinia from time immemorial-Its introduction into EuropeConsumption in the United Kingdom, in Europe, and in the whole world-Varieties of coffee, and prices in the London market-Effects of the infusion of coffeeIt exalts the nervous life, and lessens the waste of the system-Constituents of coffee-The volatile oil, its production, mercantile value, and effects on the system-The tannic acid, the theine or caffeine, and the gluten-Composition of tea and coffee compared-Loss of weight in roasting coffee-Proportion of the roasted bean taken up by water very variable-Substitutes for coffee-Seeds of the water-iris, of the Turkish kenguel, of the roasted acorn, of roasted corn and pulse, of roasted roots, and especially of chicory-The chicory plant and root-How the root is prepared for use-Gives a fictitious appearance of strength to coffee-Active ingredients in chicory-The empyreumatic oil, and the bitter principle-Its effects on the system-Mode of detecting chicory in coffee-Adulterations of chicory.

II. THE COFFEES.-The name of coffee is given to a beverage prepared from the seeds of plants roasted, ground, and infused in boiling water. The seeds of the Arabian coffee-tree are most largely used for this purpose, but various other seeds are more or less extensively employed in a similar way.

1o. ARABIAN COFFEE. -The tree which produces this seed is said to be indigenous to the countries of Enárea and Cáffa in southern Abyssinia. In these districts the coffee. tree grows like a wild weed over the rocky surface of the country. The roasted seed or bean has also been in use as