YAUPON; CASSENA (Rex vomitoria, Ait.). Shrub to 25 feet. Much-branched, spreading tree or shrub, with stout, horizontal branches. bark red-brown, broken into minute scales; branches gray, smooth. Wood hard, heavy, close grained, white, turning yellow on exposure. Leaves evergreen, small, elliptical, pointed at both ends, 1 to Q inches long, leathery, dark, lustrous above, dull beneath, persisting until spring of third year; petioles short, stout, grooved. Flowers in short-stemmed, axillary cymes, more abundant on stam inate trees. Fruit, abundant, scarlet berries, inch in di
ameter. close to stems, back of leaves. Nutlets ribbed. Dist. Virginia to Florida; west to Arkansas and Texas. Branches cut for Christmas greens. Indians made an in fusion called the "black drink," which they drank in a yearly ceremonial of purification. It is nauseating to the taste, acting as an emetic and a purgative.