Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1886 — An Ancient Plant. [ARTICLE]

An Ancient Plant.

The coca plant has long been known from its uses among the Peruvians, who have been addicted to it as a pleasing and moderate stimulant and intoxicant. The leaves are rolled up* with a little lime in them, and are chewed. The saliva, which is swallowed, produces intoxication and a strong inclination to rest. As the native workmen take their coca four times a day, the prolonged rest which it encourages is a serious drawback to their industry. The new use of coca, however, is of the greatest importance to the human race. By a chemical process, an alkaloid, dr its native principle, cocaine, has been separated from the leaves. This drug has the property of producing local insensibility to the pain upon any part of the body to which it is applied. The cocaine has been chiefly used in serious operations upon the eye with great success; but its use in the .treatment of Gen. Grant brought it into greater notice, and has popularized its name and reputation. It is exceedingly costly, having been sold for several dollars a grain; and its costliness preventsits dse, excepting in rare cases. Tim plant is a small shrub, about five to eight feet high, which bears thick evergreen leaves. The form of the leaf is an ovoid, prolonged and narrowed at the base. The shrub grows in the mountain districts, where it is cultivated in plantations for the leaves, which form an article for domestic commerce, and are sold in a dried state for a dollar or more a pound. The first crop of leaves is picked when the shrub is five years old. after which an an-

nual gather is made. The leavee are: now imported into Europe and America; and the traffic promises to become important, and the val ue to increase largely Mr sometime at least, as serve plaritations are of slow growth. It is quite probable that the plant would grow successfully in Some portions of the United Stub's or Mexico or Cuba, and the largely- increased. Its known value and the probability of its successful culture give it a general interest.