1. Fruit red or black, sometimes yellow, with smooth stones; pistillate flowers 

 with usually 6 to 9 petals and calyx lobes (2) 



1. Fruit red or purple, sometimes yellow, with ribbed or striate stones; pistillate 



and polygamous flowers with usually 4 or 5 (rarely 7) petals and 

 calyx lobes (4) 



2(1). Sepals ciliate; leaves thin, deciduous 1. /. verticillata. 



2. Sepals not ciliate but sometimes obscurely ciliolate or erose-denticulate; leaves 



coriaceous, persistent (3) 



3(2). Young twigs velutinous-puberulent; leaves crenate or crenate-serrate 

 above the middle, the 1 to 3 marginal teeth closely appressed to 

 sinus, the apex not noticeably spine-tipped 2. /. glabra. 



3. Young twigs glabrous or viscid-puberulent; leaves mostly spinescent-serrate 



above the middle, the several teeth erect or spreading, the apex 

 spine-tipped 3. /. coriacea. 



4(1). Leaves relatively thin, deciduous; inflorescence sessile, all the flowers soli- 

 tary or fasciculate; pedicels without bractlets at base (5) 



4. Leaves coriaceous, persistent; inflorescence peduncled, the flowers in cymes or 



solitary; pedicels with bractlets at base (7) 



5(4). Pedicels 4-6 mm. long; leaf blades mostly spatulate to obovate, attenuate 

 at base, commonly emarginate at apex 4. /. decidua. 



5. Pedicels 6-30 mm. long; leaf blades typically obovate-elliptic, cuneate at base, 



acute to acuminate at apex (6) 



6(5). Leaf blades short-hirtellous or puberulent along midvein beneath 



5. /. longipes var. longipes. 



6. Leaf blades hirsute along midvein beneath 5. /. longipes var. hirsuta. 



7(4). Leaf blades essentially entire or rarely with several obsolescent teeth above 



middle 8. /. Cassine. 



1 . Leaf blades coarsely toothed (rarely with some entire in /. opaca) (8) 



8(7). Leaf blades only occasionally with some more than 4 cm. long 



6. /. vomitoria. 



8. Leaf blades usually much more than 4 cm. long 7. /. opaca. 



1. Ilex verticillata (L.) Gray. Black alder, winter-berry. 



Shrub or small slender tree to 5 m. high; leaves with a petiole 1-1.5 cm. long, 

 round-obovate to elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, cuneate at base, more or less 

 abruptly acuminate at apex, serrate, appressed-pilose or downy to glabrous beneath, 

 dull above, thin-textured, deciduous, to 8 cm. long and 35 mm. wide; staminate 

 flowers clustered, 2 to 10, all short-stalked, 4- to 6-merous; pistillate flowers short- 

 stalked, 5- to 8-merous; calyx segments obtuse, ciliate; drupes bright-red varying 

 to yellow, 5-7 mm. in diameter; stones smooth on the back. 



In or about swamps, pond-margins, river banks and damp thickets in s.e. Tex., 

 Apr.-June; from Nfld. to Minn., s. to Ga. and e. Tex. 



2. Ilex glabra (L.) Gray. Ink-berry, gallberry. 



Shrub to 4 m. high, usually much smaller; twigs slender, angled, finely puberu- 

 lent; leaves persistent, rather crowded on the short twigs, with finely puberulent 

 petioles usually 2-5 mm. long, coriaceous, lustrous above, paler on undersurface, 

 oblanceolate to obovate or elliptic, to 5 cm. long and 3 cm. wide, obtuse and 

 mucronulate at apex, acute to subcuneate at base, the margin distantly serrate 

 above the middle with 1 to 3 teeth on each side or rarely entire, punctate, puberu- 

 lent above along the elevated midvein; inflorescence axillary, peduncled, the stami- 

 nate with 3 or more flowers, the pistillate 1- to 3-flowered; peduncles slender, 

 puberulent, to 1 cm. long in staminate inflorescence, shorter in pistillate; pedicels 



1098 



