646 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



Appalachian ranges from New York to Alabama. It is best developed in the 

 elevated district where Tennessee and North and South Carolina meet near one 

 common boundary. It is elsewhere shrubby. The leaves are deciduous, and the 

 bright scarlet berries are nearly as large as cherries. They fall too early to make 

 them acceptable as Christmas decorations. The wood is hard, heavy, and creamy- 

 white, and if it could be had in adequate quantities, would be valuable. The trees 

 are sometimes a foot in diameter and. forty feet high, but they are not abundant. 

 Their leaves bear small resemblance to the typical holly leaf, but look more like those 

 of cherry or plum. 



DECIDUOUS HOLLY (Ilex decidua) is called bearberry in Mississippi and possum 

 haw in Florida, while in other regions it is known as swamp holly because of its habit 

 of clinging to the banks of streams and betaking itself to swamps. It keeps away 

 from mountains, though it is found in a shrubby form between the Blue Ridge and 

 the sea in the Atlantic states, from Virginia southward. It runs west through the 

 Gulf region to Texas, and ascends the Mississippi valley to Illinois and Missouri, 

 attaining tree size only west of the Mississippi. The wood is as heavy as white oak, 

 hard, and creamy-white, both heart and sap. Doubtless small quantities are em- 

 ployed in different industries, but the only direct report of its use comes from Texas 

 where it is turned for drawer and door knobs in furniture factories. Most but not all 

 of the leaves fall in early winter. The berries obey the same rule, some fall and others 

 hang till spring. They are orange or orange-scarlet. 



