USEFUL WILD TLANTS 



Among such beverage plants one of the best known 

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

 drv woodlands and thickets of the eastern half of the 

 continent from Canada to Texas and Florida, com- 

 monly called New Jersey Tea, the Cemiothus 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 — Red Root. In late 

 spring and early summer the bushes are noticeable 

 from the presence of abundant, feathery clusters of 

 tiny, white, long-clawed flow^ers which, if examined 

 closelv, 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 score or more of species of 

 Ceanotlius indigenous to the Pacific coast, w^iere 



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