Ilex cassine, the aboriginal North American tea /

by Edwin M. Hale

But the esteem the American Indians have for this shrub, from the great use they make of it, renders it most worthy of notice. They say its virtues have been known amongst them from the earliest times, and they have long used it in the same manner as they do at present. They prepare the leaves for keeping by drying or rather parching them in a pottage pot over a slow fire, and a strong decoction of the leaves thus cured is their beloved liquor, of which they drink large quantities, both for health and pleasure, without sugar or other mixture. They drink it down and disgorge it with ease, repeating it very often, and swallowing many quarts. They say it restores lost appetite, strengthens the stomach, and confirms their health, giving them agility and courage in war. It grows chiefly in the maritime parts of the country, but not farther north than the capes of Virginia.

The Indians on the seacoast supply those of the mountains therewith, and carry on a considerable trade with it in Florida, just as the Spaniards do with their South Sea tea from Paraguay to Buenos Ayres. Now, Florida being in the same latitude north as Paraguay is south, and no apparent difference being found on comparing the leaves of these two plants together, it is not improbable they may be both the same.

In South Carolina it is called cassena, in Virginia and North Carolina it is known by the name of yopon; in the latter of which places it is as much in use amongst the white people as among the Indians, and especially among those who inhabit the seacoast.

This plant is raised from the seeds, which lie 2 years in the ground before it appears; it grows plentifully on many of the sand banks on the seashore of Carolina.

In that rare and quaint narrative of Jonathan Dickenson (1790), “who was shipwrecked on the southeast coast of Florida among the savage cannibals,” he states that when a short distance south of the “village of Sta. Lucca” (St. Lucia), and among the Indians and at the “house of the Cassekey,” he heard often a strange noise in another part of the house which he could not account for. The following quotation is interesting; it shows that cassine grows on the extreme south coast of Florida, and gives the method of preparing the black drink among those barbarous nations:

In one part of this house where the fire was kept was an Indian man having a pot on the fire wherein he was making a drink of the leaves of a shrub (which we understood afterward by the Spaniard is called cassena), boiling the said leaves after they had parched them in a pot; then with a gourd having a long neck and at the top of it a small hole which the top of one’s finger could cover and at the side of it a round hole of 2 inches diameter, they take the liquor out of the pot and put it in a deep round bowl, which being almost filled containeth nigh 3 gallons. With this gourd they brew the liquor and make it froth very much; it looketh of a deep brown color. In the brewing of this liquor was this noise made which we thought strange, for the pressing of the gourd gently down into the liquor and the air which it contained being forced out of the little hole at top occasioned a sound, and according to the time and motion given would be various, this drink, when made and cooled to sup, was in a shell first carried to the Cassekey, who threw part of it on the ground and the rest he drank up, and then would make a loud hem, and afterwards the cup passed to the rest of the Cassekey’s associates as aforesaid, but no other man, woman, or child must touch or taste of this sort of drink, of which they sat sipping, chattering, and smoking tobacco, or some other herb instead thereof, for the most part of the day.

In a letter from William Baldwin, a noted naturalist and surgeon in the U. S. Navy, written from St. Marys, Fla. (6 miles from Fernandina), in 1816, he mentions finding the Ilex prinoides predominant on the sandy, shrubby plains of the vicinity:

Its common height is about 6 or 8 feet, and at this season (December), with its ripe crimson-colored fruit, makes a fine appearance. The berry of this species is considerably larger than that of any other I have seen, and is not unpleasant to the taste, possessing an agreeable sweet, along with a slight bitter. I have eaten freely of it with entire impunity.

He discusses the question whether the genus Prinos should not be merged into that of Ilex. They are so near alike that their leaves doubtless possess similar properties, and are probably mixed with cassine.

Collinson, in a letter from London, England, to John Bartram, 1739, makes mention of “the yupon of Virginia, or cassena of Carolina” (Ilex cassena or I. vomituria). The Indians drive a great trade with the berries (?) to make tea with to the Gulf of Mexico. It grows nowhere to the northward of that island they found it on, which belongs to Col. Custis. I have it in my garden. (He errs as to the berries being used, but proves that it can be cultivated.)