AQUIFOLIACE^E 673 



Distribution. Florida, Homestead and Paradise Keys in the Everglades, Dade County; 

 in the Bahama Islands, Hayti and San Domingo. 



5. Ilex decidua Walt. 



Leaves deciduous, except on vigorous shoots, fascicled at the end of short spur-like lateral 

 branchlets, oblong-spatulate or spatulate-lanceolate, acuminate, obtuse or emarginate at 

 apex, gradually narrowed below, remotely crenulate-serrate, 2'-3' long, 3'-!' wide, thin 

 early in the season, becoming thick and firm at maturity, light green above and pale and 

 sparingly hairy along the narrow midrib below; petioles slender, grooved, pubescent, about 

 -}' in length; stipules filiform, membranaceous. Flowers on slender pedicels, those of the 

 staminate plant often \' long and longer than those of the pistillate plant, in 1 or 2-flowered 

 glabrous cymes crowded at the end of the lateral branches of the previous season, or rarely 

 solitary on branchlets of the year; calyx-lobes triangular, with smooth or sometimes ciliate 

 margins. Fruit on short stout stems, ripening in the early autumn, often remaining on 

 the branches until the appearance of the leaves the following spring, globose or depressed- 



Fig. 607 



globose, orange or orange-scarlet, \' in diameter; nutlets narrowed and rounded at base, 

 acute or acuminate at apex, many-ribbed on the back. 



A tree, 20-30 high, with a slender trunk 6'-10' in diameter, stout spreading branches, 

 and slender glabrous pale silver gray branchlets; more often a tall straggling shrub. 

 Winter-buds minute, obtuse, with ovate light gray scales. Bark of the trunk rarely more 

 than yV thick, light brown, and roughened by wart-like excrescences. Wood heavy, hard, 

 close-grained, creamy white, jvith rather lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps in low r moist soil; Gloucester County, 

 Virginia, to western Florida in the region between the eastern and southern base of the Ap- 

 palachian Mountains and the neighborhood of the coast, and through the Gulf states to 

 the valley of the Colorado River, Texas, and through Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, and 

 southern Missouri to southern Illinois; usually shrubby east of the Mississippi River and 

 only arborescent in Missouri, southern Arkansas, and eastern Texas. In Florida a form 

 (var. Curtissii Fern.) occurs with leaves only t'-f long and fruit about \' in diameter. 



6. Ilex monticola Gray. 



Leaves deciduous, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, abruptly narrowed and acuminate or 

 rarely acute at apex, cuneate or rarely rounded at base, sharply and rather remotely serrate 

 with minute glandular incurved teeth, thin, glabrous, or sparingly hairy along the prom- 



