AQUIFOLIAClLfi. (HOLLY FAMILY.) 263 



round-heart-shaped crenate-toothed and veiny shining leaves (about 2' wide) on 

 slender petioles, and a slender naked scape, l-2 high, bearing a wand-like 

 spike or raceme of small and minutely-bracted white flowers. (Name from 

 yoXa, milk, of no application to this plant.) 



I. G. aphylla, L. Open woods, Virginia and southward. June. 



ORDER 64. AQUIFOLJACE^E. (HOLLY FAMILY.) 



Trees or shrubs, with small axillary 4 - 6-merous flowers, a minute calyx 

 free from the 4 - 6-celled ovary and the 4- 6-seeded berry-like drupe, the 

 stamens as many as the divisions of the almost or quite 4 - G-petalled corolla 

 and alternate urith them, attached to their very base. Corolla imbricated 

 in the bud. Anthers opening lengthwise. Stigmas 4-6, or united into 

 one, nearly sessile. Seeds suspended and solitary in each cell, anatropous, 

 with a minute embryo in fleshy albumen. Leaves simple, mostly alternate. 

 Flowers white or greenish. A small family, here represented by only two 

 genera, since we include Prinos under Ilex. 



1. ILEX, L. (Hex & Prinos, L.) HOLLY. 



Flowers more or less diceciously polygamous, but many of them perfect. 

 Calyx 4 - 6-toothed. Petals 4-6, separate, or united only at the base, oval or 

 obovate, obtuse, spreading. Stamens 4-6. The berry-like drupe containing 

 4-8 little nutlets. Leaves alternate. Fertile flowers inclined to be solitary, 

 and the partly sterile flowers to be clustered in the axils. (The ancient Latin 

 name of the Holly-Oak rather than of the Holly.) 



1. AQUirOLIUM, Tourn. Parts of the flowers commonly in fours, sometimes 

 in fives or sixes, most of them perfect : drupe red, its nutlets ribbed, veiny, or one- 

 grooved on the back : leaves (mostly smooth) coriaceous and evergreen. 

 * Leavers armed with spiny teetli : trees. 



1. I. opaca, Ait. (AMERICAN HOLLY.) Leaves oval, flat, the wavy 

 margins with scattered spiny teeth ; flowers in loose clusters along the base of 

 the young branches and in the axils; calyx-teeth acute. Moist woodlands, 

 Maine to Penn. near the coast, and more common from Virginia southward. 

 June. Tree 20 -40 high; the deep green foliage less glossy, the berries not 

 so bright red, and their nutlets not so veiny, as in the European Holly. 



* * Leaves serrate or entire, not spiny : shrubs. 



2. I. Cassiiie, L. (CASSENA. YAUPOX.) Leaves lance-ovate or elliptical, 

 crenate (!'-!' long); flower-clusters nearly sessile, smooth; calyx-teeth obtuse. 

 Virginia and southward along the coast. May. Leaves used for tea, as 

 they were to make the celebrated black drink of the North Carolina Indians. 



3. I. my rtifolia, Walt. Leaves linear-lanceolate or linear-oblong, sparingly 

 and sharply serrate or entire (!' long) ; peduncles slender and 3 - 9-flowered, or 

 the more fertile shorter and 1 -flowered, smooth; calyx-teeth acute. Coast of 

 Virginia and southward. May. 



