B: Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and AGRICULTURAL. (1863)
By Francis Peyre Porcher
>> Again during our Civil War the attention of residents in the South was similarlv drawn to the wild offerings of nature. A literary curiosity, now rare, of those dark days may still be turned up in libraries, a book entitled ''Resources of Southern Fields and Forests . . . with practical information on the useful properties of the Trees, Plants and Shrubs," by Francis Peyre Porcher, Charleston, S. C, 1863, the writer being then a surgeon in the Confederate Army.
Among such beverage plants one of the best known is a little shrub, two or three feet high, frequent in drv woodlands and thickets of the eastern half of the continent from Canada to Texas and Florida, com- monly called New Jersey Tea, the Cemiothus Americanus, L., of the botanists. It is characterized by pointed, ovate, toothed leaves, two or three inches long, strongly 3-nerved, and by a large, dark red root, astringent and capable of yielding a red dye. This last feature has given rise to. another name for the plant in some localities—Red Root. In late spring and early summer the bushes are noticeable from the presence of abundant, feathery clusters of tiny, white, long-clawed flow^ers which, if examined closelv, are seen to resemble minute hoods or bonnets extended at arm's length. The leaves contain a small proportion of a bitter alkaloid called ceanothine, and were long ago found to make a passable substitute for Chinese tea. During the Revolutionary War an infusion of the dried leaves as a beverage was in common use, both because of the odium at- tached to real tea after the taxation troubles with England, and from motives of necessity.<<
Ref. USEFUL WILD PLANTS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
>> Again during our Civil War the attention of residents in the South was similarlv drawn to the wild offerings of nature. A literary curiosity, now rare, of those dark days may still be turned up in libraries, a book entitled ''Resources of Southern Fields and Forests . . . with practical information on the useful properties of the Trees, Plants and Shrubs," by Francis Peyre Porcher, Charleston, S. C, 1863, the writer being then a surgeon in the Confederate Army.
Among such beverage plants one of the best known is a little shrub, two or three feet high, frequent in drv woodlands and thickets of the eastern half of the continent from Canada to Texas and Florida, com- monly called New Jersey Tea, the Cemiothus Americanus, L., of the botanists. It is characterized by pointed, ovate, toothed leaves, two or three inches long, strongly 3-nerved, and by a large, dark red root, astringent and capable of yielding a red dye. This last feature has given rise to. another name for the plant in some localities—Red Root. In late spring and early summer the bushes are noticeable from the presence of abundant, feathery clusters of tiny, white, long-clawed flow^ers which, if examined closelv, are seen to resemble minute hoods or bonnets extended at arm's length. The leaves contain a small proportion of a bitter alkaloid called ceanothine, and were long ago found to make a passable substitute for Chinese tea. During the Revolutionary War an infusion of the dried leaves as a beverage was in common use, both because of the odium at- tached to real tea after the taxation troubles with England, and from motives of necessity.<<
Ref. USEFUL WILD PLANTS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
https://books.google.com/books?id=JCtAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA39&dq=%27Resources+of+Southern+Fields+and+Forests&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIjJbv3sTVAhUDMSYKHbUmBgIQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q='Resources%20of%20Southern%20Fields%20and%20Forests&f=false
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