116 NAT. ORDER. — DUMOSiE 



wliere these animals are so numerous, we may conclude that they 

 have some venomous quality in them. It was sent to England, 

 and there cultivated, in the year 1700, and preserved in several of 

 the most extensive gardens near London, till the severe winter in 

 1739, when most of them were destroyed. But since that time 

 many young plants have been raised from seeds, and have resisted 

 the cold of that country without any covering, though they often 

 suffer in very cold seasons, especially where they are not very 

 well sheltered. The leaves of this species are not so bitter as 

 those of the Cassine, or Cassioberry-bush, especially when green, 

 and are therefore preserved for making an infusion in the manner 

 of Tea, which is accounted by the Indians to be very wholesome, 

 and is almost all the medicine they use as a cathartic, in many 

 tribes. At a certain season of the year they come down in great 

 numbers, from a distance of some hundred miles, to the coast, for 

 the leaves of this tree, which is not known to' grow at any consid 

 arable distance from the sea. They make a fire on the ground, 

 and, putting a large kettle of water over it, they throw in a suffi- 

 cient quantity of these leaves to make a strong decoction, and, 

 setting themselves round the fire, from a bowl that holds about a 

 pint, they begin drinking large draughts, which in a very short 

 time produces vomiting that continues for the sj^ace of two or 

 three days, until they have sufficiently cleansed themselves ; and 

 then, every one taking a quantity of the leaves to carry away 

 with him, they all retire to their habitations. This plant is gen- 

 erally supposed to be the same as that which grows in Paraguay, 

 wheie the Jes\iits make a great revenue from the leaves, and of 

 which an account is given by Professor Frezier. 



Holly makes an impenetrable fence, and bears cropping well ; 

 nor is its verdure, or the beauty of its scarlet berries, ever ob- 

 served to suffer from the severest of our winters. It would claim 

 the preference for this purpose, even to the Crataegus, Hawthorn, 

 were it not for the slowness of its growth whilst young, and the 



