388 AQUIFOLIACE^. Ilex. 



Oedee XXXVIII. AQUIFOLIACE^. 



By W. Trelease. 



Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate, simple,- entire, crenulate, or pungently 

 toothed, petioled, with minute often persistent stipules. Flowers solitary or few 

 in the axils, or in small axillary cymes, small, greenish, dioecious by abortion, 

 4-9-merous (in ours), without disk. Calyx minute, with triangular frequently 

 persistent imbricate segments. Petals sometimes connate at base, imbricate, not 

 hooded. Stamens as many as and alternate with the petals ; anthers short, 

 2-celled, introrse, innate on short filaments. Pistil compound; ovary 4-8-celled, 

 slightly lobed, superior ; ovules suspended, 1 in each cell ; style short or want- 

 ing ; stigmas nearly confluent. Fruit drupaceous, with as many indehiscent 

 stones as carpels ; seeds not arillate, with abundant fleshy albumen ; embryo 

 small, straight, with plane cotyledons. 



1. ILEX. Flowers 4-9-merous. Calyx present and persistent in both fertile and sterile 

 flowers. Corolla slightly gamopetalous, with oblong obtuse lobes. Stamens adnate to the 

 base of the corolla. 



2. NEMOPANTHUS. Flowers 4-5-merous. Calyx often obsolete, especially in the fertile 

 flowers. Petals distinct, linear, acute. Stamens free. 



1. Ilex, L. Holly. (Classical name of the Holly Oak.) — Shrubs or 



small trees with evident though small pointed stipules. — Gen. no. 91; Benth. 



& Hook. Gen. i. 356; Maximowicz, Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. ser. 7, xxix. no. 3, 



14; Baill. Hist. PI. xi. 211 ; Trelease, Trans. St. Louis Acad. v. 345; Sargent, 



Silv. i. 103; Kronfeld iu Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 5, 186.— 



Mainly of warmer regions, especially of the New World. 



* Flowers 4-merous : drupe red or occasionally yellow ; nutlets prominently few-ribbed on 

 the sides and back : leaves coriaceous, evergreen. — § Aquifolium. 

 I. opaca, Ait. (American Holly.) Arborescent: young twigs sparingly velvety-pubes- 

 cent : leaves elliptical to obovate, 2 to 4 inches long and about half as broad, pungently 

 acuminate, mostly spinosely dentate, at least above, and often crisped, dull, the petiole (3 lines 

 long) and upper surface of the midrib somewhat puberulent : sterile cymes 3-9-flowered, 

 half inch to an inch long; the fertile mostly 1-3-flowered and half as long; the puberulent 

 peduncle 2-bracted at or below the middle : calyx-segments acute, ciliate : drupe spheroidal 

 or ovoid, 4 or 5 lines long; stigma broad and sessile. — Kew. i. 169; Poir. Suppl. iii. 6.5; 

 Michx. f. Hist. Arb. Am. ii. 191,111; Paf. Med. Bot. ii. 7, t. .53 ; Emerson, Trees & Shrubs 

 Mass. ed. 2, ii. 385, with plate; Mellichamp, Bull. Torr. Club, viii. 112; Maximowicz, 1. c. 

 29; Trelease, 1. c. 345 ; Sargent, Silv. i. 107, t. 45. /. qnerclfolia, Meerburgh, Afbeeld. Zelds. 

 Gew. t. 5; Dippel, Handb. Lanbholzkunde, ii. 504. Arjerin opaca, Baf. Sylv. Tellnr. 47. — 

 Massachusetts to Florida and Texas, chiefly near the coast, and up the Mississippi Valley to 

 S. E. Missouri and Kentucky. 



I. Cassine, L. (Dahoon Holly.) Arborescent : young twigs and often the lower surface 

 of the leaves, at least along the midrib, puberulent : leaves elliptical to obovate-oblong, 

 mostly oblanceolate, 2 to 3 inches long, narrower, obtuse to mucronulate, entire or remotely 

 low-serrate above, cuneate into petioles 4 to 6 lines long, upper surface glossy : fertile cymes 

 mostly 3-flowered and 3-fruited: drupe subglobose, 2 to 3 lines in diameter. — Spec. i. 125, 

 in part; Willd. Hort. Berol. i. t. 31; Kerner, Oekonom. Pflanzen. t. 65; Lcisener, Bot. 

 Centralbl. xlvii. 163; Sargent, Silv. i. 109, t. 46; Dippel, 1. c. 506, f. 242. 7. Dahoon, Walt. 

 Car. 241 ; Maximowicz, 1. c. 26 ; Trelease, 1. c. 345. I. Cassine, var. latifoUa, Ait. Kew. i. 



