“The berries, though, will help us to place them. Here they are ‘solitary,’ yes, and ‘two or three together,’ and at ‘the axils of the leaves.’”
“‘The fruit is a three-celled, three-seeded capsule.’”
“This has four, but I think that is not material. The persimmons, for instance, have seven seeds here and only two or three in New Jersey.”
“That,” said Mr. Stratford, still encouragingly, “is because Texas is such a seedy place. I’ve grown somewhat seedy myself since I’ve been here.”
“‘It is stated that the odor of the tea-leaves themselves is very slight.’”
“The odor of these is very slight,” remarked Mr. Stratford, “so slight, that I sometimes imagine I don’t smell it at all.”
“‘And that it is customary to mix with them the leaves of certain aromatic plants, such as Olea Fragrans.’”
“When the war is over,” said Mr. Stratford, in conclusion, “we will get some olea to mix with it, and then it will be all complete. And now let us hurrah for the great American tea. You can stay here and take care of the plant, and I will go home (so soon as I can) and get up a great Texan Tea Company.”
VIII.
CAMP FORD.
Autumn was drawing to a close, the leaves had fallen from the trees, the grass was no longer green, and prairie and timber seemed alike bare and cold. Still no exchange had come. We knew of the thirty-seven thousand prisoners taken at Vicksburg, and the six thousand taken at Port Hudson, and therefore we listened hopefully to rumors of exchange, and coined a few of our own, and remained prisoners of war.