Ilex 



1703 



spine ; under surface reticulate. Flowers reddish ; fruit ellipsoid, reddish, with 

 nutlets similar to those of /. Aquifolium. 



I. Perado, in its typical form, is confined 1 to the Madeira Islands, whence it was 

 introduced into England in 1760. It has usually been cultivated since in green- 

 houses ; but Loudon states 2 that in the Chiswick Garden and several other places 

 near London it bore uninjured the winter of 1837-1838 without protection. It has, 

 however, when tried out-of-doors at Coombe Wood, been always killed in ordinary 

 winters. It is perfectly hardy in Wicklow, where at Kilmacurragh a healthy shrub 

 was bearing fruit in July 1908; and at Powerscourt, where a fine specimen is 

 about 20 ft. high, with a diameter of spreading branches of 24 ft. 



It is doubtful if this species has been one of the parents of any of the hybrid 

 hollies. 3 



II. Ilex platyphylla, Webb and Berthelot, Phyt. Canar. ii. 135, t. 68 (1836); 

 W. J. Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 4079 (1844). 



A tree, attaining 40 ft. in height. Young branchlets minutely pubescent above 

 the insertions of the leaves. Leaves thick and coriaceous, yellowish green, much 

 larger as a rule than in /. Perado, 4 to 6 in. long, 2 to 4 in. broad, ovate-oblong, flat 

 on the surface ; base rounded or cuneate, decurrent on the glabrous petiole, which 

 shows two longitudinal furrows on the lower side ; apex shortly acuminate and tipped 

 with a slender spine ; margin not undulate, entire or with few or numerous minute 

 serrations ending in slender spines ; reticulate beneath. Flowers white ; fruit sub- 

 globose, reddish or blackish, with larger nutlets than in /. Aquifolium. 



This is common in the Canary Islands, and also occurs in the Madeiras, in the 

 latter case associated with /. Perado. From the latter species it differs mainly in 

 the larger acuminate leaves. It does not seem ever to have been in cultivation 4 in 

 England except at Kew 5 under glass ; and there is no evidence that it was concerned 

 in the origin of any of the hybrid hollies. 



III. Ilex balearica, Desfontaines, Hist. Arb. ii. 362 (1809). 



Ilex maderensis, Willdenow, Enum. PI. Hort. Berol. Suppl. 8 (18 13) (not Lamarck); Moore, in 



Gard. Chron. ii. 751 (1874). 

 Ilex Aquifolium, Linnaeus, var. balearica, Lamarck, Encycl. iii. 145 (1789); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. 



Brit. ii. 516 (1838). 



A small tree, attaining 30 or 40 ft. in height. Young branchlets stout, greenish, 

 densely covered with a minute pubescence. Leaves thick and coriaceous, concave 

 on the upper surface, 3 in. long, 2 in. broad, ovate, shortly acuminate at the apex, 

 which ends in a slender spine ; margin not undulate, either entire or with a few 

 (three to ten) irregularly placed serrations, which end in slender spines ; base of the 

 blade rounded or cuneate, scarcely decurrent on the minutely pubescent petiole, 



1 /. Perado, var. azorica, Loesener, in Nova Ada Acad. Leop. Carol, lxxviii. 247 (1901), which is the holly of the 

 Azores, differs from the typical form of the Madeiras in having smaller leaves. 



1 Trees and Shrubs, 161 (1842). Loudon, Gard. Mag. xiv. 226 {1838), records a shrub of /. Perado at Hendon 

 Rectory which was 6J ft. high. 



3 Cf., however, p. 17 12, note I. 



* Plants commonly cultivated under this name are, in my opinion, either /. balearica or one of its hybrids with 

 /. Aquifolium. 



6 A small specimen now growing in the Temperate House at Kew was sent from the Canaries by Dr. Perez. 



