54 Holly (Ilicinece) 



Leaves, variable, reverse egg-shape to oval and wedge- 

 shape, downy beneath, especially along the vines, 

 strongly net-veined. Apex and base pointed. Leaf- 

 stems, short. 



Fruit, about the size of a small pea, fleshy, bright red. 

 Nutlets, six to eight, smooth, moon-shape, often 

 continuing in place long after the leaves have fallen ; 

 a drupe. September, October. 



Found, in moist woods or swamps ; common. 



A shrub, usually about eight feet high ; very notice- 

 able among the autumn trees and bushes because of its 

 show of fiery-red berries. Its bark is tonic, astringent, 

 and antiseptic, and is often used with the effect of Peru- 

 vian bark in intermittent fevers. "It is probably as well 

 known to domestic practice as any indigenous shrub." 



Smooth Winterberry. I. Icevigata (Pursh.), Gray. 



This species differs from the last chiefly in these 

 items : 



Flowers, the staminate forms on stems nearly one inch 

 long. June. 



Leaves, shining above, smooth beneath, and only minutely 

 downy on the veins. Leaf-stems, one half to five 

 sixths of an inch long. 



Fruit, larger than the last (about one third inch in diam- 

 eter) and ripening earlier. September. 



Fotmd, in wet ground from the mountains of Virginia 

 northward. 



Fig. 12. Inkberry. /. glabra ( '.), Gray. 



Flowers, small and white, with the parts mostly in sixes ; 

 the staminate blossoms in a three- to six-flowered 



