130 HOLLY FAMILY 



the beautiful pepper tree, Schiwws Molle, planted in Cali- 

 fornia, and the Brazilian pepper tree, Schimis terebinthi- 

 folius, occasionally planted in Florida. Others that have 

 long been in cultivation are the pistachio, cashew, spondias, 

 and cotinus, or smoke-tree. 



The most abundant species in the native flora is a 

 sumac, Ehus copaUina, which usually grows as a shrub 

 three to ten feet high. It is found in dry soil throughout 

 the greater part of Florida, and may be identified by its 

 glossy leaves of nine to twenty-one pointed leaflets borne 

 along a broadly winged rachis, and by its pyramidal clus- 

 ters of small red drupes. The tiny greenish flowers, of 

 five sepals and five petals, are in dense terminal panicles. 



The poison ivy, Rhits Toxicodendron, a climbing shrub 

 with three-foliate leaves, axillary greenish flowers, and 

 whitish drupes, is less common in the Florida peninsula 

 than it is in many of the northern states. 



The coral sumac, or poisonwood, Metopium toxiferum, a 

 tree with extremely irritating sap, has leaves of three to 

 seven stalked leaflets, one to four inches long, few-flow- 

 ered axillary panicles of small greenish flowers, and orange 

 or scarlet drupes about one-half inch long. It is found on 

 the Keys and in the southern part of the peninsula. 



HOLLY FAMILY (Aquifoliaceae) 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate. Flowers white, small, from 

 leaf-axils. Fruit a red or black drupe. 



Hollies (Genus Ilex) 



One of the most common hollies in Florida, Ilex glabra, 

 is known as gallberry, from the bitterness of its fruit. 

 Inkberry the shrub is also called, as the "berries,'' which 

 remain on the bushes all winter, are inky black. This 

 holly often forms low thickets, and the abundance of 

 the fruit, together with its color and size, suggests to 



