Ilex 



1705 



oblong, or elliptic, 2^ to 4 in. long, 1 to 2 in. broad ; acute or acuminate at the 

 apex, usually broad and rounded at the base ; dark green and shining above, paler 

 and duller beneath ; margin waved, encircled by a cartilaginous rim, usually with 

 sinuate teeth, each ending in a sharp spine, which spread in different planes ; but on 

 the upper branches 1 of old trees entire, or with one or two spinescent teeth towards the 

 apex ; primary veins pinnate, six to eight pairs, dividing and looping before reaching 

 the margin ; secondary and tertiary veins indistinct ; petiole glabrous, short, rounded 

 and not sulcate on the lower side, the base of the blade not being decurrent upon it. 



Flowers small, in short axillary cymose fascicles, normally dioecious, 2 rarely 

 polygamous ; sepals four, greenish ; petals four, white, placed crossways, slightly 

 connate at the base ; stamens four ; ovary four-celled, one ovule in each cell. Fruit 

 globose, red, about -J in. in diameter, crowned by the four-lobed stigma, usually 

 containing four nutlets. 



The holly is usually bisexual, all the flowers on a tree being either exclusively 

 staminate or pistillate ; but, in rare cases, a few perfect flowers, containing both 

 good pollen and well-formed ovules, are produced in addition. 3 Dallimore states 

 that female trees, which are isolated, often bear large quantities of berries ; but in 

 such cases most of the seed is infertile, and there appears to be no doubt that 

 pollination is always effected by the pollen being brought from another tree by 

 either insects or the wind. 



The seeds when sown do not germinate for a long time, two or even three 

 years elapsing before the appearance of the seedlings. 4 These have two ovate 

 entire obtuse shortly stalked cotyledons, about f in. long, which are raised above 

 ground on a glabrous caulicle, about an inch in length. The glabrous angled stem 

 gives off in the first year three to five simple alternate leaves, similar to the adult 

 leaves in form, but much smaller, and with small sinuate spiny teeth. These leaves 

 have minute ovate acute black stipules, which are soon deciduous. 



Varieties 



The common holly is variable in the wild state, there being two forms, 5 one 

 with green and the other with purple branchlets ; moreover, differences in habit, 

 in the spinescence of the foliage, and in the colour of the fruit, are not uncommon. 

 The peculiar geographical forms, 6 which occur wild in western Asia and in China, 

 are not in cultivation. The horticultural varieties, that are usually given in nursery 



1 Kerner, Nat. Hist. Plants, Eng. Trans. 433 (1898), believes that the spiny leaves of holly are an adaptation against 

 browsing by ruminants ; and points to the fact that on adult trees leaves without spines are only produced on branches 

 beyond the reach of these animals. Withering, Arrange. Brit. Plants, ii. ail, note (1796), long ago noticed the same fact, 

 which was also referred to by the poet Southey. Mr. R. A. Phillips tells me that spineless leaves always commence about 

 half-way up wild holly trees in Ireland ; and Sir Herbert Maxwell mentions the same fact about wild holly in the wood 

 between Murthly and Dunkeld. 



2 Darwin, Forms of Flowers, 297 (1892) states that the stamens in the female flowers, though quite destitute of pollen, 

 are but slightly shorter than the perfect stamens in the male flowers. The male trees produce a greater number of flowers, 

 and these have smaller corollas than occur in the other sex. 



3 Masters, in Gard. Chron. xxiii. 27, fig. 8 (1885) and iv. 358 (1 888) describes polygamous flowers; and states that 

 occasionally a tree which has hitherto only borne staminate flowers becomes covered with berries. 



4 Cf. Lubbock, Seedlings, i. 337, fig. 240 (1892). 6 Cf. Bromfield, in Phytologist, iii. 536 (1849). 

 6 Vars. caspia and chinensis, Loesener, in Nova Acta Ac. Leop. Carol, lxxviii. 262, 263 (1901). 



