CLASS IV. ORDER III. J ILEX. 205 



Habitat. — The sea-coast ; very rare. Said to have been found, in 

 Plukenet's and Dillenius' time, both about Boston, in Lincolnshire, 

 and on Hounslow Heath ; but no one has since met wiih tliein, and 

 Sir Joseph Banks, who often examined the coast near Boston, was 

 persuaded that Bupleu rum tenuiss'imxan had been mistaken for the 

 Buffo'nia. 



Annual ; flowering in June. 



ORDER III. 



TETRAGYN'IA. 4 Pistils. 



GENUS XVIII. I'LEX. Linn. Holly. 



Nat. Ord. Ilici'ne^e. Bvongniart. 



Gen'. Char. Calyx persistent, of fonr or five teeth. Corolla of four 

 or five petals, distinct or combined ai the base. Stamens four 

 sometimes five. Fruit fleshy, containing four or five hard, one- 

 seeded nuts. . Seed inverted. — Name Ilex is supposed to have 

 been given to this genus on account of the resemblance of its 

 leaves to those of the Quercus Ilex, the true Ilex of Virgil. 



1. 7. aquifo'lium, Linn. (Fig. 263.) common Holly. Leaves ovate, 

 acute, shining, waved and spinous ; flowers numerous, axillary, 

 short, subumbellate. 



English Botany, t. 496.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 227-— Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 74. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 74. 



A very handsome and ornamental evergreen tree, with a smooth, 

 greyish bark. Leaves alternate, on short stalks, a deep shining green 

 above, paler beneath, the margins cartilaginous, waved, and with stout, 

 sharp, spinous, divaricating lobes ; the upper leaves, especially of old 

 trees, entire, with an acute point. Inflorescence short, somewhat um- 

 bellated clusters of numerous white floiccrs, arising from the axils of 

 the leaves. Calyx small, slightly hairy, with four or five small teeth, 

 remaining upon the fruit. Corolla either of four or five distinct, 

 spreading, concave petals, or united at the base into a wheel shape, 

 much larger than the calyx, white, often tinged with pink on the out- 

 side. Fm.it roundish, bright scarlet, fleshy berries, containing four or 

 five hard, single-seeded nuts, umbilicated at the apex. 



Habitat. — Hedges and woods; frequent, especially in a light sandy 

 or gravelly soil. 



