246 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA 



Ilex vomitoria, Ait. (/. Cassinc, Walt.) 



Y(a)upon, or Cassena. 



A shrub or small tree, with stiff twigs and soft scalloped ever- 

 green leaves about an inch long, and red berries. It makes an ex- 

 cellent ornamental plant, and is also used for Christmas decora- 

 tions like some of the other evergreen species of Ilex. The leaves 

 possess stimulant (and perhaps emetic) properties, and contain 

 more caffeine than any other North American plant, as far as 

 known, being nearly equal to tea leaves in that respect. ( It is a 

 near relative of the mate or Paraguay tea. a favorite South Amer- 

 ican beverage, which has similar properties.) Its properties were 

 well known to the Indians, who made a beverage known as "black 

 drink" from it, and had more or less ceremony connected with the 

 use of it. It has been used like tea by white settlers along the 

 southern coast in the past, but that custom seems to be now prac- 

 tically obsolete, except on Knott's Island, in Virginia and North 

 Carolina, where nearly every farmer has a patch of yaupon in his 

 yard, and puts up a barrel or so of it every year. The twigs are 

 usually gathered in spring, chopped up with the leaves, and dried 

 by artificial heat, so rapidly that they are scorched. When wanted 

 for use a handful or so is put in a tea-kettle, with water, left on 

 the stove indefinitely, and the decoction poured out when called 

 for. 



A good deal has been written about this plant at various 

 times, the most accessible paper perhaps being that by Power and 

 Chesnut, cited in tne bibliography. 



It is almost confined to the coastal plain, in hammocks and 

 other places protected from fire, and in soils ranging from nearly 

 pure sand to nearly pure limestone (but probably free from earth- 

 worms or nearly so). Like several other "pyrophobic" plants with 

 fleshy fruits, it often finds its way to roadsides, etc., where the 

 seeds are dropped by birds, so that its natural range is not ac- 

 curately known. It is scattered rather sporadically, being abundant 

 in some places and absent from others which appear perfectly 

 suited to it. 



6A. Along Big Sandy Creek, Tuscaloosa County. Pasture thickets 

 just north of Tuskegee. 



6C. Along and near Autauga Creek, from Prattville to its mouth ; 

 also in second-growth woods between Booth and Autaugaville. 



