During the first year maize is sown in the interspaces, rapidly overreaching the shrub, and taking the place of the screens and mats. The growth of the shrub is rather rapid, reaching its full height in about five years. But the time when it becomes productive precedes that at which it attains its complete height by about 3½ years after being planted. After that, when the season has been especially damp, it yields as often as four times a year. [Illustration: BRANCH OF COCA, as grown in a hot-house.] Attempts have been made to acclimatize it in Europe, but so far without success. As early as 1869 the cultivation of it was tried in the Botanical Garden of Hyères, but no satisfactory result was obtained. We presented, in 1872, two samples to the appreciative and learned director of the Garden of Acclimatization of Paris, M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and notwithstanding all the care taken of the young plants, they failed to reach their full growth. Several frail Coca plants may be seen in the conservatories of the _Jardin des Plantes de Paris_, in the Botanical Gardens of London, of Brussels, etc., likewise at several great horticulturists' of Gand, notably Van Houten's. As may be seen by the large colored engraving[2] and by the branch engraved above, these specimens of _Erythroxylon Coca_ are very far from giving an idea of the plant growing in the open air, in a soil and under a temperature that are favorable to its development, as shown by the leaves of Peruvian Coca, illustrated above, and which come from one of the newest _haciendas_ of Santa-Anna, belonging to M. M.-P. Concha, bordering on the territory of a savage tribe of Antis or Campas, on the Urubanba river, which joins the Amazon in latitude 12° S., longitude 75° W. GATHERING OF COCA. The plant begins to yield when it is about a year and a half old. The leaf is the only part of the plant used. It should be gathered in dry weather; this is entrusted generally to women, and simply consists in plucking each leaf with the fingers. The leaves are received into aprons, carefully carried under sheds, to shelter them from the rain and dampness, dried, and then packed. We quote from the _Voyage dans la région du Titicaca_, by Paul Marcoy, the following passage ("Tour of the World," May, 1877): "Of all the valleys of the Carabaya group, Ituata is the one where Coca is cultivated on the largest scale. They were then at the height of the work, peons and peonnes were following each other through the plantations of the shrub, so dear to the natives that a decree of 1825 placed it in the crown of the arms of Peru, alongside of the vicunia and cornucopia, or horn-of-plenty. Men and women carried a cloth slung across the shoulders in which were placed the leaves, as they gathered them one by one. These leaves, spread out on large awnings, were exposed to the sun for two or three days, then packed up in bags of about one metre in size, and sent off to all parts of the territory.