670 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



nearly white when first cut, turning brown with age and exposure, with thick rather 

 lighter colored sap wood; valued and much used in cabinet-making, in the interior finish 

 of houses, and in turnery. The branches are used in large quantities for Christmas 

 decoration. 



Distribution. Coast of Massachusetts, in the city of Quincy, Norfolk County, south- 

 ward generally near the coast to the shores of Mosquito Inlet and Charlotte Harbor, 

 Florida; valley of the Mississippi River from southern Indiana and Illinois, to the shores of 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and through Missouri, Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, and Louisiana to the 

 valley of Cibolo Creek (Southerland Springs, Wilson County), Texas; rare and of small size 

 east of the Hudson River and rare in the Appalachian Mountain region and the country 

 immediately west of it; most abundant and of its largest size on the bottom-lands of the 

 streams of northern Louisiana, southern Arkansas and eastern Texas; at the north in dry 

 rather gravelly soil often on the margins of Oak-woods, southward on the borders of 

 swampy river-bottoms, in rich humid soil. 



Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states as an ornamental plant. 



2. Ilex Cassine L. Dahoon. 



Leaves oblanceolate to oblong-obovate, acute, mucronate or rarely rounded and occa- 

 sionally emarginate at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, revolute and entire, 

 or sometimes serrate above the middle with sharp mucronate teeth, puberulous above and 



Fig. 604 



densely pubescent below when they first unfold, becoming glabrous at maturity with the 

 exception of scattered hairs on the lower surface of the broad midrib, dark green and lus- 

 trous above, pale below, l|'-3' long and !'-!' wide; petioles short, stout, thickened at the 

 base, sparingly villose. Flowers on hairy pedicels, with acute scarious bractlets, in pedun- 

 culate clusters, 3-9-flowered on the staminate plant, usually 3-flowered on the pistillate 

 plant sometimes nearly I/ long, from the axils of leaves of the year or occasionally of the 

 previous year; calyx-lobes acute, ciliate. Fruit ripening late in the autumn, persistent 

 until the following spring, globose, sometimes \* in diameter, bright or occasionally dull red 

 or nearly yellow, solitary or often in clusters of 3's; nutlets prominently few-ribbed on the 

 back and sides; rounded at base, acute at apex. 



A tree, 25-30 high, with a trunk 12'-18' in diameter, and branches coated at first with 

 dense silky pubescence persistent until the end of the^second or third year, ultimately dark 

 brown and marked by occasional lenticels; or often a low shrub. Winter-buds minute, 

 acute, with lanceolate scales thickly coated with pale silky pubescence. Bark of the trunk 



