(2) A decoction of the dried and roasted leaves. It is probable that the leaves during roasting developed new qualities, as the roasting of coffee brings out the aromatic odor due to a volatile oil. (3) A decoction which was allowed to ferment. In this condition it became an alcoholic beverage, capable of causing considerable intoxication, similar to that caused by beer or ale. McCullough, in his “Researches,” seems to be in error when he asserts: None of the people of Florida appear to have used intoxicating drinks; but they made a hot tea from the leaves of the cassine (_Prinos glaber_), which they poured backwards and forwards until it frothed. This tea may have been slightly stimulant, but it seems to have had no other than a diaphoretic or diuretic effect. This seems to have been the belief of all the early writers, but I have always doubted it, for if true the North American Indians would stand about alone among races above the lower grade of savagery in their ignorance of alcoholic beverages. The Mexican Indians (Aztecs), the tribes of the Pacific coast and of Central America, all had intoxicating drinks. I admit that there is no proof that the Indians of Canada and of the States north of the Ohio and the Potomac possessed intoxicating beverages, but there is ample proof that the southern Indians brewed from cassine a strong beer. In my experiments I find that an infusion of cassine leaves with boiling water, after standing till cool, gives a scarcely perceptible taste and slight odor. This infusion, if boiled for half an hour, gives a dark liquid like very strong black tea, of an aromatic odor, _sui generis_, not like coffee, but more like Oolong tea without its pleasant rose odor. The taste is like that of an inferior black tea, quite bitter, but with little delicacy of flavor. It is not an unpleasant beverage, and I can imagine that the palate would become accustomed to it, as to maté, tea, or coffee. HISTORY. The early history of the use of _Ilex cassine_ as a beverage is lost in the darkness of prehistoric ages. Probably the same can be said of tea, coffee, maté, and cocoa. But it is a singular fact that while all the latter beverages still continue to be used in the countries where they are indigenous, as well as all over the world, the use of cassine is nearly extinct, as it is now only used occasionally in certain important religious ceremonies by the remnants of the Creek Indians, and will disappear with them unless rescued by chemical research and its use revived for hygienic or economical reasons.