XVI. 1. THE AMERICAN HOLLY. 341 



XVI. 1. THE HOLLY. ILEX. L. 



The hollies are evergreen shrubs or small trees, with leaves 

 usually coriaceous, and often bordered with thorny teeth, and 

 white, axillary flowers, commonly perfect, but often with the 

 fertile and sterile on different plants. They are distinguished 

 by their four-celled ovary, with four sessile stigmas, and their 

 berry-like drupe, with four, one-seeded nuts. The hollies are 

 found in North and tropical America, in the warmer parts of 

 Asia, and a single species in central and northwestern Europe. 

 Their wood is remarkable for its hardness, whiteness, and close- 

 ness of grain, and for its susceptibility of receiving color and 

 polish. There are about forty species in the genus. 



The American Holly. I. opaca. Aiton. 

 Figured in Michaux, Sylva, II, Plate 84. 



The American holly is a handsome, low tree, with nearly 

 horizontal branches, and thorny, evergreen leaves. The erect 

 trunk is clothed with a smooth bark, of an ashy gray, resemb- 

 ling that of the beech, but somewhat lighter. On the older trees, 

 it is usually overspread with grayish parmelias and lecanoras, 

 and other bluish, whitish, and gray lichens. The recent shoots 

 are of a yellowish or olive gray, with a slight, downy powder, 

 afterwards becoming of a clear gray. It is found growing in 

 company with the red maple, the tupelo, the yellow birch, the 

 black oak, and the cedar. 



Leaves on short footstalks, evergreen, oval-oblong or elliptic, 

 acute at both ends or somewhat angled at base, with several 

 large teeth ending in stiff spines, leathery, smooth and shining 

 above, paler or greenish yellow, with bright green veins, beneath. 

 At their base, when recent, a pair of awl-shaped, brown sti- 

 pules may be seen. 



The perfect or fertile flowers are solitary, at the base of the 

 recent shoots, on stems half an inch long, beneath the base of 

 which are a lanceolate, membranous, brown, fugacious scale, 

 and two minute, pointed, more permanent ones at its sides ; and 

 above the middle are two appressed, minute, pointed, green 



