HOLLY FAMILY 



THE FERTILE FLOWERS: one to three; the staminate, two 

 to ten; calyx with silky hairs on the margins; all flowers on 

 very short peduncles. 



THE FRUIT: a very small, bright red drupe. 



A tall, reserved shrub, with smooth, olive-green bark 

 and many ascending twigs. Its bright berries usually 

 still cling to the bare branches after the leaves have dis- 

 appeared, and sometimes persist throughout the whole 

 winter, making the bushes a conspicuous feature of the 

 swamps. These are the sprays of scarlet berries that have 

 long been popular with the Nantucket people for bright- 

 ening their winter bouquets and Christmas wreaths. 



This species should be distinguished from the loevigata 

 (Pursh) Gray, which, also, is frequent on Nantucket. 

 The Icevigata has lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate leaves; 

 that are shining above and mostly glabrous beneath, with 

 appressed and very fine, saw-teeth. Its sterile flowers are 

 on long peduncles, the calyx lobes without silky hairs. 



201 



