396 TREES IN WINTER 



HOLLY 



American Holly, White Holly. 



Ilex opaca Ait. 



HABIT — A shrub or small tree, rarely reaching 30 ft. in height, with 

 a trunk diameter of 15-18 inches; larger south and west; with slender 

 horizontal drooping or slightly ascending branches forming a compact 

 conical head with spiny evergreen leaves. 



BARK — Light gray, smooth becoming somewhat roughened with age. 



TAVIGS — Rather slender, grayish to yellowish brown, smooth or more 

 or less downy. LENTICELS — inconspicuous. 



LEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, semi-oval. BUNDLE- 

 SCARS — solitary. 



LEAVES — Thick, evergreen, elliptical to obovate, spiny-tipped and 

 with few spiny teeth or rarely entire, dull yellowish-green above, pale 

 and yellower beneath; midrib prominent beneath, with short, stout 

 slightly flne-downy leaf-stalks, groove above. STIPULES — minute, 

 awl-shaped, persistent. 



BUDS — Short, blunt, roundish, more or less downy, terminal bud 

 pointed. 



FRUIT — Persistent through the winter, about the size of a pea, dull 

 red or rarely yellow, berry-like, with four ribbed nutlets. Some trees 

 bear only sterile flowers and therefore never produce fruit. 



COMPARISONS — The American Holly closely resembles the cultivated 

 European Holly \_Ilex Aquifolium L.] but the leaves of this latter 

 species are described as glossier, of a deeper green color, more wavy- 

 margined with whitish translucent edges, and the berries as of a 

 deeper red color. 



DISTRIBUTION — Generally found in somewhat sheltered situations in 

 sandy loam or in low, moist soil in the vicinity of water. Massachusetts, 

 southward to Florida; westward to Missouri and the bottom-lands of 

 eastern Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — reported on the authority of Gray's 

 Manual, sixth edition, in various botanical works but no station is 

 known; New Hampshire and Vermont — no station reported; Massachu- 

 setts — occasional from Quincy southward upon the mainland and the 

 Island of Naushon; rare in the peat swamps of Nantucket; Connecticut 

 — rare; roadsides and thickets; escaped from cultivation or possibly na- 

 tive; Rhode Island — common in South Kingston and Little Compton and 

 sparingly found upon Prudence and Conanicut islands in Narragansett 

 Bay. 



WOOD — Light, tough, not strong, close-grained, nearly white when 

 first cut, turning brown with age and exposure, with thick rather light- 

 er colored sapwood, valued and much used in cabinet making, in the 

 interior finish of houses and in turnery; the branches are much used in 

 Christmas decorations. 



