Holly, Yew and Box 



purposes. It is found in damp ground about the 

 margins of streams, etc., and varieties are met 

 with bearing white and yellow fruits. 



I. verticillata, Gray = Prinos verticillata, P. 

 prunifolius, " Black Alder," " Winterberry " and 

 " Fever Bush." The latter three are the popular 

 names under which the shrub is known in the 

 United States. Under natural conditions it is 

 found growing in swamps and low grounds from 

 Nova Scotia to Ontario, Wisconsin, Florida, and 

 Missouri, as a shrub from a few feet to 10 or 12 

 feet in height. The leaves are deciduous and 

 show some considerable difference in size and 

 shape. They are from i J to 4 inches long and 

 from | of an inch to an inch wide, with petioles 

 from J of an inch to J an inch long, and may be 

 oval, obovate, or lanceolate in shape, with serrated 

 margins, and sometimes rounded, but more 

 often acuminate, apices. The undersides are 

 downy. The flowers are white and six-parted, 

 the male ones being borne several together in 

 the leaf axils, the female ones being often borne 

 singly but sometimes several together from 

 axillary buds. The mature fruits are bright red, 

 barely J of an inch in diameter, and borne on short 

 stalks no longer than the diameter of the fruit. 

 The calyx lobes are retained until the fruit falls. 

 There is a variety with yellow fruit. 



In Woody Plants of Massachusetts we learn that 

 4 'the bark and berries of the ' Black Alder' are 



148 



