ILICIXE.E. 219 



gamo-dicecious or unisexual. Calyx 3- to 6-partite, imbricated, gene- 

 rally persistent. Petals 4 or 5 (rarely more), free or united at tlie 

 base, hypogynous, deciduous, imbricated. Stamens as many as the 

 petals, free or slightly adhering to the petals. Filaments subulate. 

 Anthers introrse. Disk none, or undistinguishable from its union 

 with the ovary. Ovary free, 3-, 4-, 5-celled, rarely many-celled. 

 Style none, absent or terminal. Placentae at the apex of the cells. 

 Ovules 1 or 2 in each cell. Fruit fleshy, with as many stones as 

 there are cells in the ovary. Stones hard, 1-seeded. Seed with a 

 membranaceous seed-coat. Albumen copious, fleshy. Embryo 

 minute, in the apex of the albumen, straight, with the radicle 

 superior. 



GENUS /.— ILEX. Linn. 



Flowers generally perfect. Calyx small, persistent, 4- (more 

 rarely 5- or 6-) cleft. Corolla rotate, with as many oblong-obtuse 

 segments as there are divisions of the calyx. Stamens as many as 

 the lobes of the corolla, to the short tube of which they slightly 

 adhere. Stigma sessile or sub-sessile. Fruit globose, drupaceous, 

 with the fleshy portion rather dry, containing 4 to 8 bony pyrenes 

 or stones, each of which contains a single seed. 



Trees or shrubs with shining leathery entire (or more rarely 

 spinous-dentate) leaves. Flowers small on axillary branched 

 peduncles. 



The name of this genus of plants is said to be derived from the Celtic word ac, a 

 point, in reference to the prickly nature o£ the leaves of several species. 



SPECIES I.— ILEX AQUIFOLIUM. Unn. 

 Plate CCCXVI. 



Leaves evergreen, leathery, shining, glabrous, eUiptical-oval, 

 acute or acuminate ; those of the lower branches spinously serrate 

 at the margins, those of the upper branches generally entire. 

 Peduncles very short, axillary, beai'ing lunbellate cymes of very 

 numerous flowers. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Tree. Spring and early Summer. 



A large shrub or small tree, about 20 feet high, though some- 

 times attaining 50 or 00 feet. Bark of the trunk and main branches 

 smooth, ash-colour ; that of the younger shoots angulated and 

 grscn; the shoots of the year sliglitly downy. Leaves shortly stalked, 

 2 tc 3 inches long, leathery, with a raised cartilaginous line round 



