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CONTRIBUTIONS FR0:M TIIR Sir AW SCHOOL OF BOTANY. 

 Xo. 5. 



Revision of North American Ilicinex and Celastracese. 



By William Trelease. 



(Presented Feb. 4. 1S89.) 



Pending the desired continuation of Dr. Gray's Synoptical 

 Flora, I have thought best to place the following synopsis of 

 these small Orders in the hands of botanists, in the hope of se- 

 curing information and material needed for some species. The 

 manuscript, based on a study in 1887 of the material in the Gray? 

 Torrey and Engelmann herbaria, has been used in an examina- 

 tion of the specimens contained in the herbarium of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, in that of Mr. I. C. Martindale, and, more 

 recently, of the herbaria at Kew and Berlin. For the privilege of 

 using the large collections named, and for other material kindly 

 placed in my hands by correspondents, I am very grateful. 



Both Orders are taken in the sense of Bentham and Hooker, 

 Gen. i. The first includes, besides our two genera, only the small 

 Pacific genera Byronia^ Endl., and Sphenostemou^ Baill. The 

 second comprises some 400 species belonging to 39 genera, — 

 largely tropical. 



IL.I€13i E.K. 



So far as our flora is concerned, Ilex is represented by endemic 

 species limited to the eastern half of the continent ; but some of 

 them are represented by closely related eastern Asiatic species. 

 Bentham and Hooker recognize about 145 species, all told. The 

 only recent comprehensive study of the genus is by Maximowicz, 

 in Mem. Acad. Imp. St. Petersb. 1881, ser. 7, xxix. No. 3, where 

 about 170 species are admitted, of which 120 have been studied 

 by the author. The greater number belong to tropical regions, 

 especially of this continent. Nemopanthes includes only the one 

 species of our flora. 



Biologically, there is little of interest in the species of either 

 genus. The leaves o{ Ilex aquifolho)/, the European holly, and 



