306 aquifoliacejE. (holly family.) 



§ 1. AQUIFOLIUM, Tourn. Parts of the flower commonly in fours, sometimes 

 in Jives or sixes : drupe red, its nutlets ribbed, veiny, or one-grooved on the back : 

 leaves (mostly smooth) coriaceous and evergreen. 



* Leaves armed with spiny teeth : trees. 



1. I. opaca, Ait. (American Holly.) Leaves oval, flat, the wavy 

 ^ margins with scattered spiny teeth ; flowers in loose clusters along the base of 



the young branches and in the axils; calyx-teeth acute. — Moist woodlands, 

 Maine to Pennsylvania, near the coast, and more common from Virginia 

 southward. June. — Tree 20° -40° high; the deep green foliage less glossy, 

 the berries not so bright red, and their nutlets not so veiny, as in the European 

 Holly (I. Aquifolium, L.). 



* * Leaves serrate or entire, not spiny : shrubs. 



2. I. Cassine, L. (Cassena. Yaupon.) Leaves lance-ovate or elliptical, 

 crenate ( 1 ' - 1 £' long) ; flower-clusters nearly sessile, smooth ; calyx-teeth obtuse. — 

 Virginia and southward along the coast. May. — Leaves used for tea by the 

 people along the coast, as they were to make the celebrated black drink of the 

 North Carolina Indians. 



3. I. myrtifblia, Walt. Leaves linear-lanceolate or linear-oblong, sparingly 

 and sharply serrate or entire (l'long); peduncles slender and 3- 9-flowered, or 

 the more fertile shorter and 1 -flowered, smooth; calyx-teeth acute. — Coast of 

 Virginia and southward. May. — Probably a var. or the next. 



4. I. Daho6n, Walt. (Dahoon Holly.) Leaves oblanceolate or oblong, 

 entire, or sharply serrate towards the apex, with revolute margins (2' -3' long), 

 the midrib and peduncles pubescent ; calyx-teeth acute. — Swamps, coast ct Virginia 

 and southward. May, June. 



§ 2. PRINOIDES. Parts of the (polygamous or diacious) flowers in fours or fives 

 (rarely in sixes) : drupe red or purple, the nutlets striate-many-ribbed on the back: 

 leaves deciduous : shrubs. 



5. I. decidua, Walt. Leaves wedge-oblong or lance-obovate, obtusely serrate, 

 downy on the midrib beneath, shining above, becoming thickish ; peduncles of the 

 sterile flowers longer than the petioles, of the fertile short ; calyx-teeth smooth, 

 acute. — Wet grounds, Virginia, Illinois, and southward. May. 



6. I. monticola, Gray. Leaves ovate or lance-oblong, ample (3'- 5' long), 

 taper-pointed, thin-membranaceous, smooth, sharply serrate ; fertile flowers very 

 short-peduncled ; calyx ciliate. (I. ambigua, Torr. I. montana, Ed. 1, not 

 Prinos montanus, Sw.) — Damp woods, Taconic and Catskill Mountains, and 

 Cattaraugus Co., New York (G. W. Clinton), through Pennsylvania (east to 

 Northampton Co. Mr. Wolle, Prof. T. Green), and southward along the Alle- 

 ghanies. May. 



7. I. mollis, Gray. Leaves soft downy beneath, oval, ovate, or oblong, taper- 

 pointed at both ends, especially at the apex, thin-membranaceous, sharply ser- 

 rulate ; sterile flowers very numerous in umbel-like clusters, the pedicels shorter 

 than the petiole and (with the calyx) soft-downy, the fertile peduncles very 

 short. (Prinos pubescens, Michx. herb. P. ambiguus, Pursh, not Michx.) — 

 Burgoon's Gap, Alleyhanies of Pennsylvania (J. R. Lowrie, in fruit), and along 

 the mountains in the Southern States. — Resembles the last. 



