26 Trees with Simple Leaves. [aii 



Bark, light gray and smooth. 



Fruit, a nearly round, bright-red berry, the size of a pea. 



It ripens in September and continues upon the 



branches into the winter. 

 Found, from Massachusetts southward near the coast to 



Florida, and from Southern Indiana southwest, and 



southward to the Gulf. 

 An evergreen tree, ten to thirty feet high, with a 

 compact head of spreading branches. Its wood is easily 

 worked, white, of fine grain, and light in weight. 



The use of holly and other evergreens in religious 

 ceremonies dates from pagan times. " Trummying of the 

 temples with floures, boughes, and garlondes, was taken 

 of the heathen people, whiche decked their idols and 

 houses with suche array." Early church councils made rules 

 and restrictions concerning the practice — e.g., in France 

 Christians were forbidden " to decke up their houses with 

 lawrell, yvie, and green boughes in the Christmas season," 

 for " Hedera est gratis sima Baccho."* 



Fig. II. — Ilex monficola, Gray. 



This is usually regarded as a shrub, "but it not seldom 

 attains the size and exhibits the port of a small tree " — (T. 

 C. Porter). It differs from I. opaca chiefly in these items: 



Leaves, not evergreen ; egg-shape or long oval, rather 

 thin with edge finely toothed, and apex taper-pointed. 



Found, in damp woods in the Catskill and Tahonic Moun- 

 tains, and in Cattaraugus County, New York ; 

 through Pennsylvania as far east as Northampton 

 County, and southward along the Alleghanies. 



* The ivy is most acceptable to Bacchus. 



