VINES AND SHRUBS 



Dahoon Holly 



/. Casstne. — Sometimes a low tree, reaching 25 feet in height. 

 Leaves, evergreen, with revolute margins, entire, 2 to \ is 

 long. Fruit, like the last. May and June. 



A Southern species, found in swamps from Virginia 

 Florida and westward to Louisiana. 



Large-leaved Holly 



/. monticola — Sometimes a tree. Generally a tall shrub found 

 in the Catskills and in mountain woods along the Alleghanies. 

 Leaves, 2 to 6 inches long, thin, serrate, petioled, ovate, tapering 

 to a point at apex, obtuse at base. Flowers, fertile, generally sin- 

 gle; sterile, clustered. Berries, red, large for the genus. 



The holly so much used at Christmas time is cut from a 

 tree, /. opaca, found all along the coast from Massachusetts 

 to Florida. The leaves are evergreen, spiny-toothed, and 

 berries small, bright red. The English holly is prettier, with 

 very glossy leaves and many red berries. 



Mountain Holly 



Nemopanthus mucronata. — Family, Holly. Color, whitish. 

 Leaves, oblong or broadly oval, tapering at base, acute at apex, 

 smooth, pale green, with a few small teeth or entire, on short, 

 slender petioles. Flowers, of two kinds, the staminate, clustered 

 or single, on long pedicels, with minute calyx teeth; the pistillate 

 with 4 or 5 linear petals. Stamens, 4 or 5, with prominent anthers 

 on long, slender, protruding filaments. Berry, pale crimson, ripe 

 in August, containing 4 or 5 nutlets in yellow pulp. May. 



Shrub 6 to 8 feet high, with grayish bark, the older stems 

 often covered with brown or gray lichens. Low. wet woods 

 or swamps, from Maine to Virginia, westward to Wisconsin. 



American Bladder Nut 



Staphylea trifblia Family, Bladder Nut. Color, white. 



Leaves, opposite, pinnate or 3-foliate, with long, narrow stipules; 

 the two side leaflets sessile, the middle one with petiole, finely 

 serrate, ovate, pointed at apex. Flowers, perfect. Calyx, 5- 

 parted, often tinged with pink. Petals, 5. contracted into a 

 tube below. Stamens, 5, with long, slender filaments and yellow 

 anthers opening inward. Styles, 3, as long as the stamens. 

 Fruit, a 3-celled, membranous pod, like 3 adhering pods, 2 inches 

 long, tipped with a style, splitting at the top when ripe and dis- 

 closing 1 to i bony seeds. Flowers, in drooping racemes, bell- 

 shape, terminating the small branches. April and May. 



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