PLANTS OF SOUTHERN: NEW JERSEY. 539 



Family ILICACE^. Hollies. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Petals oblong or obovate, slightly united, stamens attached to them at 

 their base. 

 h. Leaves thick, evergreen, persistent. 



c. Leaves spiny-toothed, berries red. Ilex opaca, p. 539 



cc. Leaves not spiny-toothed, oblanceolate, dotted beneath, berries 

 black. /. glabra, p. 540 



bb. Leaves thin, deciduous, berries red. 



c. Calyx lobes distinctly fringed on the margin even in fruit, all 

 flowers short pedicelled. /. verticillata, p. 540 



cc. Calyx lobes not fringed, sterile flowers on long pedicels. 



/. lavigata, p. 541 

 aa. Petals linear, distinct from each other and from the stamens, leaves 

 elliptic, glabrous, sparsely-toothed, mucronate at tip, berries red. 



Ilicioides inucroimta, p. 541 



ILEX L. 



Ilex opaca Ait. Holly, 



Ilex opaca Aiton, Hort. Kew. L 169. 1789 [Carolina]. — Pursh, Fl. Am. 

 Sept. L 117. 1814. — ^Willis 40. — Britton 75. — Keller and Brown 215. 



Common in woods of the Middle and Coast districts, following 

 the course of the rivers for some distance up into the Pine 

 Barrens with other coastal plants. Reported from only 

 three stations in the State north of our limits, in Warren. Mercer 

 and Middlesex Counties. 



The Holly is especially characteristic of the Coastal strip, and 

 there it is that we find it rising tO' the full dignity of a tree, 

 wdth trunk nearly or quite a foot in diameter, and its grayish- 

 white bark gleaming through the masses of shining green leaves. 

 Here, too, it produces berries most abundantly, and trees on 

 protected ground are a gorgeous show during the autumn and 

 winter. 



The vandalism of the Christmas peddlers, mainly negroes, is 

 largely responsible for the dwarfed, barren condition of most 

 of the Holly of West Jersey, but the importation of vast quan- 

 tities of Holly and Mistletoe from the south to Philadelphia has 

 largely done away with this, as it is easier for venders to secure 

 a supply from the wholesalers on the river front than to bring 

 their own Holly from New Jersey. On the coast many of the 



