116 
NAT. ORDER. DUMOSiE 
where these animals are so numerous, we may conclude that they 
have some venomous quality in them. It was sent to England, 
and there cultivated, in the year 1700, and preserved in several of 
the most extensive gardens near London, till the severe winter in 
1739, when most of them were destroyed. But since that time 
many young plants have been raised from seeds, and have resisted 
the cold of that country without any covering, though they often 
suffer in very cold seasons, especially where they are not very 
well sheltered. The leaves of this species are not so bitter as 
those of the Cassine, or Cassioberry-bush, especially when green, 
and are therefore preserved for making an infusion in the manner 
of Tea, which is accounted by the Indians to be very wholesome, 
and is almost all the medicine they use as a cathartic, in many 
tribes. At a certain season of the year they come down in great 
numbers, from a distance of some hundred miles, to the coast, for 
the leaves of this tree, which is not known to grow at any consid 
erable distance from the sea. They make a fire on the ground, 
and, putting a large kettle of water over it, they throw in a suffi- 
cient quantity of these leaves to make a strong decoction, and, 
setting themselves round the fire, from a bowl that holds about a 
pint, they begin drinking large draughts, which in a very short 
time produces vomiting that continues for the space of two or 
three days, until they have sufficiently cleansed themselves ; and 
then, every one taking a quantity of the leaves to carry away 
with him, they all retire to their habitations. This plant is gen- 
erally supposed to be the same as that which grows in Paraguay, 
where the Jesuits make a great revenue from the leaves, and of 
which an account is given by Professor Frezier. 
Holly makes an impenetrable fence, and bears cropping well ; 
nor is its verdure, or the beauty of its scarlet berries, ever ob- 
served to suffer from the severest of our winters. It would claim 
the preference for this purpose, even to the Cratcegus, Hawthorn, 
were it not for the slowness of its growth whilst young, and the 
