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.) Dr. Fothergill cultivated it together with maté in his botanical garden in London in 1784. (See his Memoirs.)