I. platyphylla 



a variable plant, and is sometimes found wild 

 with leaves considerably larger than those of 

 cultivated plants in this country ; on the other 

 hand forms are met with, with foliage somewhat 

 smaller than that of our plant. Its nearest ally 

 appears to be I. Perado, and it approaches the 

 "Common Holly" most closely in the varieties 

 maderensis and balearica. 



Occasionally met with under the name of the 

 "Broad-leaved Canary Island Holly," it has 

 been known to cultivation since 1760, though it 

 does not appear to have attracted any special 

 attention until many years later. In 1844 a 

 correspondent in the Floricultural Cabinet refers 

 to it as growing in a greenhouse at Kew and also 

 says that it grows freely in the open air and is 

 quite hardy in this country. It forms a handsome 

 evergreen tree of small stature, with large, dark 

 green, broadly oval leaves, often 4 to 5 inches 

 long and 2j to 3 inches wide, or occasionally on 

 wild plants 8 inches long and 4^ inches wide, 

 with tiny, brown or black, triangular stipules. 

 The margins are usually unequally and irregularly 

 armed with short spines. Occasionally the spines 

 are wholly suppressed, but more frequently the 

 lower halves are spineless, whilst the upper 

 halves bear a few or many spines, and again the 

 margins are sometimes evenly armed with spines. 

 The apex is usually acute and terminated with 

 a spine, but this is not always the case. The 



