Hex vomitoria, 

 THE EMETIC HOLLY. 



Si/nonymes. 



Hex vomitoria, 



Hex cassena, 



Hex cassene vera, 



Houx apalachine, 



The americano, The Peragua, The apa- 

 lachina, 



Cassene, Cassena, True Cassena, Ever- 

 green Cassena, Cassioberry-bush, 



Vaupon, Yapon, 



AiTON, Hortus Kewensis. 

 De Candoi-le, Prodromus. 

 LocDON, Arboretum Britannicum. 

 MicuAtJX, Flora Boreali- Americana. 

 Walter, Flora Caroliniana. 

 France. 



Italy. 



Britain and Anglo- America. 

 Southern Indians. 



Engravings. Catesby, Natural History of Carolina; Loudon, Arboretum Britannicum, ii., figure 1S6 ; and the figure* 

 below. 



Specific Characters. Leaves oblong or elliptic, obtuse at both ends, crenately sawed, and, with the branch- 

 ipts, glabrous. Flowers in subsessile lateral umbels. De Candolle, Prodromus. 



Description. 



"Thie firm Cassine, endures the wrecking storm, 

 And changeful season, by Traditinn styl'd 

 The boon of Heaven, and round Hygeia's fane 

 Wreaths a bright garland, when her priestesses. 

 Clad in their meek and unpretending skill. 

 Its aid demand." 



Thaits op the Aborigines. 



^^o^^HE Ilex vomitoria is 

 s^ h H 1^ an elegant evergreen 

 ^ LI f^ tree or shrub, usually 

 S^i^i growing to a height 

 of twelve or fifteen feet in its natural habitat, 

 and somewhat higher in a state of cultivation. 

 The flowers, which put forth in June, are 

 whitish, and are succeeded by smooth, red 

 berries, that are ripe in October, and like 

 those of the European holly, remain upon the 

 branches during the winter. 



Geography, History., ^'c. The emetic holly 

 IS found in moist, shady places, from Virginia 

 to the Floridas, and was introduced into Brit- 

 ain in 1770. It was cultivated by Miller in 

 the physic garden at Chelsea, and in several 

 other collections in the neighbourhood of Lon- 

 don, till the severe winter of 1789, when most 

 of the plants Avere destroyed. Other plants 

 were afterwards raised from seeds in that country, and have ever since resisted 

 the cold of ordinary winters without protection. 



In France, it has been cultivated for a long time by the Chevalier Jansen, in 

 his garden at the Barriere Chaillot. at Paris. 



Legendary Allusions. It is said that the true cassena is regarded by many of 

 the southern tribes of the American Indians. ;ts a holy ])laiit. lioin? used by tlirni 

 during their religious rites and solemn councils, to clear the stomach and the 



22 



