USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



Among such beverage plants one of the best known 

 is a little shrub, two or three feet high, frequent in 

 dry woodlands and thickets of the eastern half of the 

 continent from Canada to Texas and Florida, com- 

 monly called New Jersey Tea, the Ceanothus Ameri- 

 canus, L., of the botanists. It is characterized by 

 pointed, ovate, toothed leaves, two or three inches 

 long, strongly 3-nerved, and by a large, dark red 

 root, astringent and capable of yielding a red dye. 

 This last feature has given rise to another name for 

 the plant in some localities Eed Eoot. In late 

 spring and early summer the bushes are noticeable 

 from the presence of abundant, feathery clusters of 

 tiny, white, long-clawed flowers which, if examined 

 closely, are seen to resemble minute hoods or bonnets 

 extended at arm's length. The leaves contain a 

 small proportion of a bitter alkaloid called ceano- 

 thine, and were long ago found to make a passable 

 substitute for Chinese tea. During the Revolutionary 

 War an infusion of the dried leaves as a beverage 

 was in common use, both because of the odium at- 

 tached to real tea after the taxation troubles with 

 England, and from motives of necessity. Connois- 

 seurs claim that the leaves should be dried in the 

 shade. There are a scare or more of species of 

 Ceanothus indigenous to the Pacific coast, where 



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