AQUirOLIACEiB. 361 



Appears to be as vsddely spread over northern and central Europe, Rus- 

 sian Asia, and northern America as the common £., but not extending so 

 far to the southward. Rather common in Ireland and Scotland, less so in 

 England. Fl. summer. A third species is usuallj' described under the 

 name of the intermediate £. (U. intermedia), in which some of the floating 

 branches bear crowded, short, but much branched leaves without vesicles, 

 whilst others have either vesicles only, or rather short, simple or once forked 

 leaves with a single vesicle, and the flower is rather larger than that of the 

 lesser B., with a prominent spur. But the British plants which I have 

 seen as such, have appeared to me to be barren specimens of the lesser B., 

 and it is very doubtful whether the Continental one be not a mere variety 

 of the same species. The plate in ' English Botany,' t. 2489, is taken from 

 a barren British specimen, with a flower copied from a foreign plate. 



XL VII. THE HOLLY FAMILY. AQUIFOLIACEiE. 



A small Order, widely spread over the globe, limited in 

 Britain to a single genus, from which the few exotic ones 

 differ slightly in the number of parts of the flower and fruit. 

 They all nearly approach the Celastrus family, but have the 

 petals usually united into a monopetalous corolla, and the 

 stamens inserted on its base, without any fleshy disk round 

 the ovary. 



I. HOIiIiY. ILEX. 



Shrubs or trees, with, alternate leaves, and small flowers in axillary clu.«- 

 ters. Calyx of 4 or rarely 5 small teeth. Corolla regular, deeply divided 

 into as many segments or petals. Stamens as many, inserted on the co- 

 rolla, and alternating with its segments. Ovary sessile, 4-celled, with one 

 pendulous ovule in each cell, and crowned by 4 minute sessile stigmas. 

 Fruit a berry, or rather a small drupe, including 4 stones or nuts, each 

 containing a single seed. 



The species are numerous in the warmer parts of the northeni hemi- 

 sphere, as well as in the tropics, but reduced to very few in the more tem- 

 perate regions. 



1. Common Holly. Ilex Aquifolium, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 496.) 



An erect, much branched evergreen shrub or bushy tree ; the leaves 

 shortly stalked, ovate, thick and shining, some quite entire, others much 

 waved, and bordered with strong, very prickly, coarse teeth. Flowers white, 

 in dense clusters in the axils of the leaves. Berries bright red or yeUow. 



Common in hedges and woods in western and southern Europe, and in 

 central Asia, fi-om the Caucasus to the Himalaya, but wiU not bear the 

 winters of north-eastern Europe or northern Asia. Extends aU over Bri- 

 tain, except the north-east of Scotland. Fl. summer. 



The Snowdrop-tree (Salesia) from North America, and the Styrax from, 

 south-eastern Europe and western Asia, both occasionally to be met with in 



2i 



