CHAPTER VII 

 BEVERAGE PLANTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



And sip with nymphs their elemental tea. 



Pope. 



MAN dearly loves a sup of drink with his meat, 

 and when our pioneer ancestors in the Ameri- 

 can wilderness ran short of tea and coffee and craved 

 a change from cold water, they found material for 

 rriore or less acceptable substitutes in numerous wild 

 plants. Particularly during the American Revolu- 

 tion was interest awakened in these, and several 

 popular plant-names still current date from those 

 days of privation. Again during our Civil War the 

 attention of residents in the South was similarly 

 drawn to the wild offerings of nature. A literary 

 curiosity, now rare, of those dark days may still be 

 turned up in libraries, a book entitled " Resources 

 of Southern Fields and Forests . . . with practical 

 information on the useful properties of the Trees, 

 Plants and Shrubs, " by Francis Peyre Porcher, 

 Charleston, S. C., 1863, the writer being then a 

 surgeon in the Confederate Army. 



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