HOLLY FAMILY 



MOUNTAIN-HOLLY 



Ilicidides mucronata. Nemopdnthes fascicularis. 



Ilicioides, resembling holly. Nemopanthes, flower with a 

 slender peduncle. 



A slender shrub, varying in height from six to twelve feet. 

 Found in swamps and low wet woods from Nova Scotia to 

 western Ontario and southward to Virginia, Indiana, and 

 Wisconsin. 



Bark. — Greenish gray or ashen gray, often the host of many 

 lichens ; shoots glabrous, reddish brown. 



Leaves. — Alternate, sometimes tufted, simple, pinnately 

 veined, one-half to two inches long, elliptic or obovate, rounded 

 or acute at base, entire or obscurely serrate, acute or mucronate 

 at apex; when full grown are light yellow green, glabrous; 

 mid vein and primary veins prominent. Petiole grooved, red- 

 dish, about one-fourth to one-half an inch long. 



Flowers. — May, June. Polygamo-dicecious, white, small, on 

 long slender pedicels in the axils of the leaves ; staminate flow- 

 ers solitary or two to four together ; pistillate solitary. The 

 parts of the flowers vary from three to five. 



Fruit. — Berry-like drupe, sub-globose, bright red, one-fourth 

 of an inch in diameter; nutlets four to five. September. 



The Mountain Holly is the one species of its genus. 

 The leaves often grow in tufts on short lateral 

 branches and so give a leafy effect to the tree. Com- 

 pared with other species of the Holly family it falls 

 far below them in attractiveness. 



56 



