20 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



ORDER HJCINEAE : HOLLY FAMILY. 



Leaves simple, mostly alternate, coriaceous, ex-stipulate and mostly evergreen. Flowers 

 small, white or greenish, axillary, 4-8 numerous and sometimes dioecious ; calyx minute, 

 free, imbricated in the bud ; corolla regular, cleft or almost parted, hypogynous, imbricated 

 in the bud; stamens as many as the divisions of the corolla, alternate with them and 

 attached to their base; anthers adnate, opening lengthwise; ovary free from the calyx, 

 4-8-celled, with a single suspended ovule in each cell; stigmas 4-8 or united into one, 

 nearly sessile. Fruit drupaceous, with 4-8 anatropous seeds containing large fleshy albu- 

 men and minute embryo. 



Trees and shrubs of over one hundred species, some of considerable economic value. 



GENUS ILEX, L. 



Leaves alternate. Flowers lateral, single or clustered and usually perfect (but many 

 are abortive), usually 4 (but sometimes 5-8) numerous; calyx persistent; petals distinct 

 or scarcely united at the base, obtuse, oval or obovate, spreading; stigmas separate or 

 united. Fruit a drupe-like berry, and usually red or purple. 



(Ilex is an ancient Latin name, but originally applied to a species of Oak.) 



252. ILEX MONTICOLA, GRAY. 

 MOUNTAIN HOLLY. LARGE-LEAF HOLLY. 



Ger., Berg-Stechpalme. Fr., Houx de Montagne. Sp., Acebo de la 



Montana. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves deciduous, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 3-5 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 

 glabrous except on the prominent veins beneath; petioles slender, about % in. long. 

 Flowers in June, in few-flowered cymes at the ends of short spurs on the growth of the 

 previous season, or solitary on the new growth; calyx lobes acute, ciliate. Fruit sub- 

 globose, scarlet, sometimes nearly % in. in diameter; nutlet prominently ribbed. 



A small tree of a somewhat pyramidal habit of growth and under most 

 favorable conditions attaining the height of 30 or 40 ft. (12 m.). The 

 trunks of the largest trees may be 10 or 12 in. (0.30 m.) in thickness and are 

 covered with a thin brownish gray bark slightly if at all roughened by 

 fissures. In many localities it is a shrub rather than a tree. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood moderately heavy, hard, close-grained, 

 with many small medullary rays and annual rings rather indistinctly indi- 

 cated. The sap-wood is of a creamy white color and the small heart light 

 brown. Specific Gravity, 0.6563 ; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 40.90. 



HABITAT. -- The Appalachian Mountains, from the Catskills of New 

 York State to northern Alabama and Georgia, but known as a tree only in 

 the southern part of its range, as far north as North Carolina. 



