AQUIFOLIACE^ 



615 



roughened by wart-like excrescences. "Wood light, tough, not strong, close-grained, 

 nearly white when first cut, turning brown with age and exposure, with thick rather 



lighter colored sap wood ; valued and much used in cabinet-making, in the interior 

 finish of houses, and in turnery. The branches are used in large quantities for 

 Christmas decoration. 



Distribution. Coast of Massachusetts, in the city of Quincy, southward gener- 

 ally near the coast to the shores of Mosquito Inlet and Charlotte Harbor, Florida, 

 valley of the Mississippi River from southern Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 through Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana to eastern Texas; rare and of small size 

 east of the Hudson River and rare in the Alleghany Mountain region and the coun- 

 try immediately west of it; most abundant and of its largest size on the bottom-lands 

 of the streams of southern Arkansas and eastern Texas; at the north in dry rather 

 gravelly soil often on the margins of Oak woods, southward on the borders of swampy 

 river-bottoms, in rich humid soil. 



Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states as an ornamental plant. 



2. Ilex Cassine, L. Dahoon. 



Leaves oblanceolate to obovate-oblong, acute, mucronate or rarely rounded and 

 occasionally emarginate at the apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at the base, 

 revolute and entire or sometimes serrate above the middle, with sharp mucronate 

 teeth, puberulous above and densely pubescent below when they first unfold, be- 

 coming glabrous at maturity with the exception of scattered hairs on the lower sur- 

 face of the broad midribs, dark green and lustrous above, pale below, l^'-3' long, 

 and ^'-1' wide; their petioles short, stout, thickened at the base, sparingly villose. 

 Flowers on hairy pedicels, with acute scarious bractlets, in pedunculate clusters, 

 3-9-flowered on the staminate plant, usually 3-fiowered on the pistillate plant, some- 

 times nearly 1' long, from the axils of leaves of the year or occasionally of the pre- 

 vious year; calyx-lobes acute, ciliate. Fruit ripening late in the autumn, persistent 

 until the following spring, globose, sometimes ^' in diameter, bright or occasionally 

 dull red or nearly yellow, solitary or often in clusters of 3's; nutlets prominently 

 few-ribbed on the back and sides; rounded at the base, acute at the apex. 



A tree, 25-30 high, with a trunk 12'-18' in diameter, and branches coated at 



