THALAMIFLORiE 177 



The honey is not abundant, but lies exposed. The 

 plant is usually dioecious, but not invariably or com- 

 pletely so. There is sometimes a rudiment of a 

 pistil in the male flowers. The female flowers are 

 the larger. 



The fruit is dispersed by birds. 



In this group are included many plants having the 

 theine principle which are used as a substitute for 

 tea, or mat^, e. g. I. paraguayensis. 



The Holly is a useful tree, yielding timber for 

 inlay work, and other products, besides serving as a 

 hedgerow plant. There are some species that possess 

 astringent and antiseptic properties, or are emetic. 

 Holly berries are really somewhat poisonous. 



21. The Crowberry Group. 



A good deal of uncertainty has prevailed as to the 

 proper position of the order Empetraceae, which is 

 represented in the British flora by one species. In 

 the system of Bentham and Hooker it is placed last 

 in the Thalamiflorse between the Holly group and 

 the first group of the Calyciflorae, or Spindle Wood 

 group. In their later handbook, however, they place 

 it near the Euphorbiaceas in the Apetalae or Mono- 

 chlamydeae, but the seeds are erect and the ovules 

 differ. Others place the order next to the Heath 

 group in the Gamopetalae. By some it is placed 

 last in the Dicotyledons, after the Willow group. 

 The nearest relationship seems to be with the 



12 



