AMERICAN HOLLY 



(Ilex Opaca) 



HOLLY is a characteristic member of a large family scattered through 

 most temperate and tropical regions of the world. It belongs to 

 the family Aquifoliacea, a name which conveys little meaning to an 

 English reader until botanists explain that it means trees with needles 

 on their leaves, acus meaning needle, and folium leaf. How well holly, 

 with its spiny leaves, fits in that family is seen at once. 



About 175 species of holly are dispersed in various parts of the 

 world, the largest number occurring in Brazil and Guiana. Ilex is the 

 classical name of the evergreen oak in southern Europe. 



The glossy green foliage and the brilliant red berries of the holly 

 tree have long been associated in the popular mind with the Christmas 

 season. Mingled with the white berries and dull green foliage of the 

 mistletoe, it is the chief Yuletime decoration, and many hundred trees 

 are annually stripped of their branches to supply this demand. The 

 growth is still quite abundant, but if the destruction and waste continue, 

 American holly will soon be exhausted. 



Its range extends from Massachusetts to Texas and from Missouri 

 to Florida. In New England, the trees are few and small, and the same 

 holds true in many parts of the Appalachian region. The largest trees 

 are found in southern Arkansas and eastern Texas. In the North it 

 grows in rather dry, gravelly soil, often on the margins of oak woods, but 

 in the South it takes to swamps, and does best on river bottoms where 

 the soil is rich. It is often associated with evergreen magnolia, which it 

 resembles at a distance, though differences are plain enough on close 

 examination. The light, grayish-green barks of the two trees look much 

 alike; but the magnolia's leaves are larger, thicker, and lack the briers 

 on the margins. 



Holly varies in size from small straggling bushes to well-formed 

 trees fifty or sixty feet high and two or three in diameter. The principal 

 value of holly is not in its wood, but in its leaves and berries. Some 

 persons suppose that holly leaves never fall. That is true of no tree that 

 attains any considerable age. An examination of a holly thicket, or a 

 single tree, in the spring of the year will reveal a fair sprinkling of dead 

 leaves on the ground, though none may be missed from the branches. 

 Those that fall are three years old, and they come down in the spring. 

 There are always two full years of leaves on the trees. 



Flowers are the least attractive part of holly. Few people ever 

 notice the small, unobtrusive cymes, scattered along the base of the 



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