THE HOLLY FAMH.V. -, , - 



YAUPON. CA5SENA. {rhiL- C.) 

 Ilex I'onii'/or/if. 



Stamtnate flmvers : growing closely to the branches in short-peduncled cvmes 

 Ptstillate cymes : sessile; one or two flowered. Calvx-lobes : rounded and obiuse' 

 Petals: four, oblong, narrowed at the base. Stamens: four, on the corolla Drup^'- 

 round, red. Leaves: small, with slightly pubescent petioles; ovate-oblonp blunt 

 at the apex and rounded at the base; serrate, or approaching crenate, briglu-Krctn 

 above, paler below; glabrous; evergreen. A shrub or small tree occasionally 

 thirty feet high. ^ 



The Carolina, or South Sea tea, as also this holly is called, occurs most 

 generally near salt water, although it grows well into the interior of Arkan- 

 sas. In the Atlantic States its leaves are annually dried and used by the 

 natives for tea. It is also the plant from which the Indians made their 

 famous " black drink." 



When the time of year drew near they assembled, according to a cus- 

 tom of long standing, from parts far and wide at some chosen place where 

 the plant grew in abundance. Here they built a great fire and hung over it 

 a kettle. Into this with water they then threw quantities of the yaupon's 

 leaves. As soon as they had sufficiently brewed they began drinking 

 the beverage and were soon in consequence violently sick. But still they 

 were undeterred. Again they drank with the same result, and so for two 

 or three days they continued drinking and being sick, or until they deemed 

 their systems to be sufficiently cleansed. After this they returned to their 

 several habitations, each carrying on the way a branch of the holly. 



/. Cassine, dahoon holly, bears oblanceolate or oblong-obovate leaves, 

 sometimes four and a half inches long, and which are entire, or display a few 

 sharp-pointed teeth. On their upper surfaces they are shiny and glabrous, 

 but usually show underneath a fine pubescence. They last over the winter, 

 as do also the round red drupes. Sometimes the dahoon holly becomes a 

 tree of about twenty-five feet high, but much more often it remains a shrub. 

 It is an inhabitant of the low country from Louisiana and Florida to \'ir- 

 ginia and grows in woods. 



/. dectdua^ swamp or meadow holly, chooses for its home such haunts 

 as swamps and shaded ravines, and is one that sheds its leaves in the 

 autumn. Early in May its small, white flowers growing on slender pedi- 

 cels unfold with the leaves. The parts of the dowers are usually in fours 

 and, as all the flowers of the hollies, are inconspicuous in comparison with 

 their fruits. Sometimes it becomes tree-like, about thirty feet high, while 

 the bark of its young shoots presents a beautiful silvery grey. 



