Wisconsin in the north, to Missouri and Florida in the 
south. In many parts of this area it is abundant, 
preferring low and damp or even swampy situations. Jle 
verticillata is the commonest and best known in gardens 
of that section in which the leaves are deciduous, of the 
genus to which our common Holly belongs. Linneus, 
who named it Prinos verticillatus in 1753, and most of the 
older writers, indeed regarded these Hollies which are 
not evergreen as constituting a genus apart. The 
modern view, based on the identity in floral structure 
in the two groups, is that Prinos is only a subgenus or 
section of //ex, though it is to be noted that the leaves in 
Prinos, besides being deciduous, differ also in their mem- 
branous texture from those of the A quifolium section, to 
which the true Holly belongs. In Prinos, moreover, 
the parts of the female flower, though similar in shape and 
arrangement, are usually more numerous than in Aqui- 
jolium. The nearest ally of J. verticillata is I. laevigata, 
A. Gray, the Smooth Winterberry of American writers, 
which occurs in the same natural habitats, but can be 
readily distinguished from the common Winterberry by 
its leaves, which are nearly or quite glabrous, by the 
longer pedicels of its male flowers, and by its entire calyx- 
lobes, which are not ciliate. Like many other North 
American trees and shrubs that affect swamps and damp 
places in a state of nature, J. verticillata thrives best in 
this country in good well-drained loamy or peaty soil. 
There are few more beautiful fruit-bearing shrubs when 
it carries an abudant crop of its bright red drupes. But 
to secure this result thorough ripening of its wood is 
essential, and for this reason the plants must be given a 
_ position fully exposed to the south. J. verticillata ean be 
propagated either by seed or by cuttings, the latter 
being made of leafy shoots, in July. The fruit-bearing 
twig figured in our plate was supplied by Messrs Waterer 
and Sons of Bagshot in October, 1917, when it happened to 
be in bearing and in unusual profusion. The male and 
female flowering twigs were supplied from the Kew 
collection, where the plant thrives well, but does not 
always fruit freely. A variety with yellow fruit, which 
Professor Robinson has distinguished as var. chrysocarpa, 
is also in cultivation along with other forms that differ 
