YAUPON 
Ilex vomitoria Aiton 
Yaupon is a shrub or small tree, sometimes as much as twenty- 
five feet tall. It 1s especially handsome in autumn when covered with 
its beautiful red berries, which resemble those of its close relative, 
the American holly. It is worthy of wider cultivation as an orna- 
mental plant in the Southern States. The fruits, when ripe, often do 
not remain long on the branches, for birds, especially mocking birds, 
ate vety fond of the berries, and soon strip the trees of them. Various 
eatly explorers tell us of the black drink, or cassena, used by the 
Indians of the South Atlantic States, which was brewed from yau- 
pon leaves. The dried leaves, which contain about one-half of one 
pet cent of caffeine, were steeped in water, which was then cooled 
by pouting rapidly from one vessel to another, this treatment pro- 
ducing frothiness. When very strong from long boiling, the liquid 
is black and bitter, and acts as an emetic, a quality which the Indians 
regarded lightly, and merely drank again. When, however, the 
leaves ate heated with water for but a short time, a delicious drink 
is produced, and the United States Department of Agrticulture is 
endeavoring to popularize this. It closely resembles maté or Paraguay 
tea, which is made ftom a related plant, and it promises to come 
into wider use as a substitute for tea, being more suitable than the 
latter for production under the labor conditions of this country. 
Yaupon ranges along the Coastal Plain from Texas to Arkansas 
and Florida, and northward to Virginia. 
The specimen sketched was obtained near Beaufort, South 
Carolina. 
PLATE 226 
