General Description 



isolated trees, removed twenty or thirty yards 

 from pollen-bearing specimens, it is not an un- 

 common thing to find from twenty-five to sixty 

 per cent of the seeds barren. In most cases 

 Hollies have to depend on wind or insect agency 

 for pollination, for, though occasionally, perfect 

 stamens bearing good pollen are found on trees 

 bearing principally female flowers, it usually 

 happens that trees which produce fruit, rarely 

 produce perfect stamens ; in such cases the fila- 

 ments are often of normal size whilst the anthers 

 are undeveloped. On the other hand, trees which 

 produce an abundance of pollen rarely develop 

 female organs in a satisfactory manner. That 

 pollen is occasionally borne by flowers on female 

 trees, and fruits are produced on trees which 

 usually bear male flowers only, is quite true, and 

 in these cases single flowers as a rule bear fully 

 developed male and female organs, the few 

 flowers borne in July and later being more prone 

 to this than the blossoms borne at the normal 

 time. The fact that isolated trees often bear 

 abundant crops of fruit has given rise to the idea 

 that perfect flowers are borne in abundance by 

 some trees : this idea, however, is open to ques- 

 tion, for, after careful observation, I have rarely 

 found good pollen on such trees and have found 

 a large number of unfertile seeds, which points 

 to the fact that the flowers have to depend on 

 wind or insects to convey pollen from other trees. 



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