ILICINEjE. 



SIZVA OF NOHTU AMERICA. 



103 



ILEX. 



Floweks usually polygamo-dioecious ; calyx 4 to 6-lobed, imbricated in eostivation 

 persistent ; petds 4 to 6, free or united at the base, imbricated in estivation, hypcy' 

 nous. Fruit, a berry-like drupe. ^^ "^"^ 



A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 379. — 

 Meisner, Gm. 252. — Bentham 



Ilex, Liniiieus, Gen. 33. - 



Endlicher, Gen. 1092. - 



& Hooker, Gen. i. 356. 



Prinos, Linn^us, Cor. Gen. 6; Gen. ed. 2, 952. —A. L. de 



Jussieu, Gen. 379. - Endlicher, Gen. 1092. - Meisner, 

 Gen. 252, 



Aquifolium, Adanson, Fam. PI ii. 166. 



Ageria, Adanson, Fam. PI. ii. 166 (in part). 

 Macoucoua, Aublet, PI. Guian. i. 88, t. 34. 

 Paltoria, Ruiz & Pavon, Fl. Peruv. l 54, t. 84, f. b. 

 Chomellia, Vellozo, Fl. Flum. i. t. 106. 

 Pileostegia, Turezaninow, Bull. Mosc. xsxil., i. 276. 

 Pseudehretia, Turczaninow, Bull. Mosc. xxxvl, i. 607. 



Trees and shrubs, with watery juice. Leaves alternate, petiolate, persistent or deciduous, often 

 nitidous, entire, dentate or spinescent, stipules minute, deltoid or subulate, chartaceous, or filiform and 

 membranaceous, deciduous. Flowers minute, in axillary cymes, fascicles, or umbellules. Calyx minute 

 four or six-Iobed, persistent. Corolla rotate; petals oval or oblong, obtuse, free or united at the base' 

 white or greenish white, deciduous. Stamens inserted on the base of the corolla, as many as and alter- 

 nate with Its divisions ; filaments subulate, exserted in the sterile, much shorter in the fertile flower • 

 anthers attached on the back, oblong, introrse, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally ; effete or 

 rudimentary in the fertile flower. Ovary free, sessile, sub cylindrical, two to twelve-celled ; rudimentary 

 m the sterfle flower ; style short or wanting ; stigmas as many as the cells of the ovary, distinct or con- 

 fluent ; ovules one or two in each cell, suspended from near their apex, collateral, auatropous ; raphe 

 dorsal or rarely lateral; the micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, subglobose, crowned with the rem- 

 nants o£ the stigma; sarcocarp fleshy; nutlets usually four to eight, bony or crustaceous, one-seeded. 

 Seeds suspended ; testa membranaceous. Embryo minute, in the apex of the copious fleshy albumen, 

 subglobose, two-lobed ; the radicle superior.* 



The genus Ilex is mdely distributed over the tropical and temperate parts of the world with the 

 exception of western North America, AustraHa, New Zealand, Tasmania, and New Guinea. About one 



^ The genus Ilex was separated by Asa Gray (Man. Bot. N. 

 States, ed. 5) into the following' sections : — 



1. Aquifolium. Parts of the flower usually in fours, some- 

 times in fives or sixes ; drupe red, nutlets ribbed, veiny or one- 

 grooved on the back ; leaves coriaceous, persistent. 



2. PiiiNOiDKS. Parts of the flower in fours or fives, or rarely in 

 sixes ; drupe red or purple, nutlets striate, many ribbed on the 

 back ; leaves deciduous. 



3. Prinos. Parts of the staminate flower commonly in fours, 

 fives, or sixes ; parts of the pistillate flowers commonly in sixes, or 

 rarely in fives, sevens, or eights ; nutlets smooth. 



Maximowicz (Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petershourg, ser. 7, xxix. 20) 

 proposes the following sections for the genus : — 



1. Paltoria. Parts of the flower in fours or very rarely in 



fives ; pedicels produced from the shoots of the year. Intricately 

 branched evergreen shrubs or small trees, with small coriaceous 

 often punctate leaves destitute of spiny teeth. 



2. Ilex. Parts of the flower generally more than four ; pedicels 

 produced with the young leaves from the shoots of the year. Trees 

 or rarely tall shrubs, with ample persistent coriaceous or charta- 

 ceous entire or serrate leaves, never spinescent, even when young. 



3. Aquifolium. Parts of the flower generally in fours. Trees 

 or usually tall shrubs, with ample persistent or rarely chartaceous 

 and usually spino-serrate leaves ; cymes aggregated from the old 

 wood or occasionally solitary from shoots of the year. 



4. Prinos. Parts of the flower usually in fives ; pedicels pro- 

 duced from shoots of the year. Trees or shrubs, with deciduous 

 membranaceous leaves and succulent drupes. 



