Handbook of Trees of the Noetiikrn States akd Canada. ;]21 



The Mountain Holly, as its name implies, is 

 quite different from the other iloUies in being 

 distinctly a mountain-loving tree. In tlie liigh 

 AUeghanies of North and South Carolina and 

 Tennessee it attains its largest size, here sonip- 

 times growing to the height of 30 or 40 ft. 

 with slender branches forming a narrow pyra- 

 midal top and trunk sometimes 10 or 12 in. in 

 uiameter. Tlie bark of trunk is of a brownish 

 gray color sli_i,'htly rou^/lii-iiod witli lonticclg. 

 Excepting in these hiL^h altitudes it is usually 

 shrubby. Quite as distinct as it is from other 

 Hollies in habitat is it also in its large leaves, 

 which are more suggestive of those of a 

 Plum than of a Holly, and in its somewhat 

 larger fruit. It is a handsome tree and would 

 doubtless be popular for ornamental planting 

 were it not for the fact that its beauty is 

 evanescent, as it drops both its leaves and its 

 fruit early. 



The wood is heavy, hard and strong, fine- 

 grained and nearly white but not of commercial 

 importance.! 



Lcavrs deciduous, ovate to ol)long-Ianceolate, .'?-."i 

 in. long, obtuse or acute at base, acuminate or 

 acute at apex, sharply serrate with slender pointed 

 teeth. membranaceous. prominently arcuate- 

 veined, glabrous dark green above, paler and some- 

 what glabrous on the prominent veins beneath : 

 peti()li>s slender, about V, in. long. Flowers in 

 .lune. in few-flowered cymes at the ends of short 

 «I)iirs on the growth of the previous season, or 

 solitary on the new growth : calyx lobes acute, 

 ciliate. Fruit subglobose. scarlet, sometimes 

 nearly y^ in. in diameter : nutlet prominently 

 ribbed. 



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