YAUPON; CASSENA (Ilex vomitoria, Ait.). Shrub to 25 

 feet. Much-branched, spreading tree or shrub, with stout, 

 horizontal branches, bark red-brown, broken into minute 

 scales; branches gray, smooth. Wood hard, heavy, close- 

 grained, white, turning yellow on exposure. Leaves evergreen, 

 small, elliptical, pointed at both ends, 1 to 2 inches long, 

 leathery, dark, lustrous above, dull beneath, persisting until 

 spring of third year; petioles short, stout, grooved. Flowers 

 in short-stemmed, axillary cymes, more abundant on stam- 

 inate trees. Fruit, abundant, scarlet berries, \ inch in di- 

 ameter, close to stems, back of leaves. Nutlets ribbed. 

 Dist.! Virginia to Florida; west to Arkansas and Texas. 

 Branches cut for Christmas greens. Indians made an in- 

 fusion called the "black drink," which they drank in a 

 yearly ceremonial of purification. It is nauseating to the 

 taste, acting as an emetic and a purgative. 



Illustration from ''Hough's Handbook of Trees" 



201 



