312 THE CYRILLA FAMILY. 



BUCKWHEAT TREE. TITI. [Plate XC IX.) 



Cliftbnia vionophylla. 



Floxuers : growinj^ in nodding racemes on twigs of the precednig year, the 

 pedicels having reddish, scale-like and early-falling bracts at their bases. Calyx: 

 persistent; minute; with five rounded sepals. Corolla : with five spreadmg petals 

 narrowed at their bases. Stamens: ten, in two rows of different lengths. Anthers: 

 orange coloured. Pistil: one. Drupes: three to four winged; dry; noddnig. 

 Leaves: one and a half to two inches long; oblanceolate, mosdy blunt at the 

 apex and tapering at the base ; entire ; thick ; bright green and shiny above; paler 

 below and chalky underneath when old; leather-like. A shrub or small tree forty 

 to fifty feet high and having greyish twigs. 



In the damp, peaty soil of many a shallow swamp we find this plant as a 

 shrub intermingled with wax myrtles, fetter btishes and the swamp bay; but 

 in the deeper swamps of western Florida it attains to a much greater size. 

 Those of its leaves which have an ashen hue are usually very old and have 

 remained persistent on the boughs until the autumn of their second year. 

 The generally used common name is in reference to the fruit, which has a 

 resemblance to that of buckwheat. 



THE HOLLY FAMILY. 



Ilichcccr, 



Trees or shrubs 7vith simple^ alternate., petioled leaves., either ever- 

 green or deeiduous, and with entire., serrate., or bristle-toothed margins, 

 and "tvhieh bear small., white or greenish., regular fiowers., perfect or 

 imperfect. 



LARGE=LEAVED HOLLY. 

 Ilex vionticola. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Holly. Whitish. Scentless. Alabama and Xo7th Carolina May. 



to Nezu York. Fruit : September. 



Ftozuers : minute, the sterile ones growing mainly in axillary clusters, the fertile 

 ones solitary or in pairs with slender pedicels; calvx-lobes, ciliate. Corolla: 

 with rounded petals. Drupes : abundant ; bright red; fleshy; globose. Leaves: on 

 short lateral branches; ovate or ovate-lanceolate, long pointed at the apex and 

 wedge-shaped, roimded, or tapering at the base into slender petioles ; sharply 

 serrate; thin; glabrous or slightly pubescent underneath along the veins; 

 deciduous. A shrub or slender tree occasionally forty feet high. 



