THE HOLLIES 143 



a little distance the tree appears as if a great cloud 

 of rosy smoke rested upon its gorgeous foliage. Or the 

 haze may be so pale as to look like mist. This won- 

 derful development of the flower chister is unique among 

 garden shrubs and it places Coiiniis in a class by itself. 

 No garden with a shrubbery border is complete without 

 a smoke tree, which is interestmg and beautiful at any 

 season. 



In its native haunts our American smoke tree is found 

 in small isolated groves or thickets, along the sides of 

 rocky ravines or dry barren hillsides in Missouri, Okla- 

 homa, and Texas, and in eastern Tennessee and northern 

 Alabama. 



THE HOLLIES 



The holly family, of five genera, is distributed from the 

 north to the south temperate zones, with representation 

 m every continent. It includes trees and shrubs of one 

 hundred and seventy-five species, seventy of which grow 

 in northern Brazil. The dried and powdered leaves of 

 two holly trees of Paraguay are commercially known as 

 mate, or Paraguay tea, to which the people of South 

 America are addicted, as we are to the tea of China. 

 "Yerba mate" has a remarkable, stimulating effect upon 

 the human system, fortifying it for incredible exertions 

 and endurance. Indulged in to excess, it has much the 

 effect of alcohol. 



China and Japan have thirty different species of holly. 

 America has fourteen, four of which assume tree form; 

 the rest are shrubby *'winterberries.'* 



