Ilex.] ILICACEiE. 301 



of ilie flower-buds, and having mostly a pair of minute pointed bracts below the 

 middle of each, in addition to others at the base of their common peduncle and 

 that of the entire cluster. Cafyx persistent, small, downy, with broad, blunt, 

 shallow, fringed segments. Corolla in 4 (sometimes 5) deep obovate segments, 

 minutely fringed at their concave tips, otherwise glabrous, at length reflexed. 

 Stamens erect, rather longer than the corolla, inserted between the segments ; 

 filaments white, glabrous ; anthers and their globular pollen pale yellow, introrse. 

 roundish ovate. Germen 4-cleft at the summit ; style obsolete ; stigmas greenish. 

 Berries persistent through the autumn and winter, bright scarlet, rarely yellow, 

 globose or sometimes a little ovoid, the size of peas, scarred with the 4 blackish 

 points of the stigmas, filled with a dryish, mealy, slightly bitter pulp. Seeds 4, 

 erect, bony, oblong, trigonous, rounded at the back, deeply furrowed and rugose. 



The earlier flowers are said to be generally imperfect, and such as are 4-cleft 

 often to want the germen, which accounts for the small quantity of berries pro- 

 duced by some trees that llower abundantly. 



My [late] friend E. J. Vernon, Esq., has remarked a sensible fragrance in the 

 flowers of the Holly, from which tree it is not unlikely the hamlet of Hulverslone, 

 in this island, may have derived its name, Hulver being an obsolete word for 

 Holly : Hulse, Germ. ; Houx, Fr. 



The European Holly is represented in America by a species so closely allied to 

 it {I. opaca) that the compiler of the 'Arboretum Britannicum' is inclined to 

 regard it as a variety of the former. Few however who have seen I. opaca in its 

 native places of growth will, I think, be disposed to coincide in that author's opi- 

 nion. I have studied this species with great attention over an extensive range of 

 country and climate, from New Jersey to the southern confines of Georgia, and 

 westward to the Mississippi ; and, although so similar to the common Holly of 

 Europe in most particulars, it everywhere preserves its few peculiarities of charac- 

 ter unaltered by geographical position. It is a far less handsome tree than the 

 European Holly, of a looser, less compact or bushy mode of growth, rugged and 

 torulose, arising from the extremities of the branches, being much more twiggy, 

 shorter and slenderer, quite woody, and covered, like the older wood lower down, 

 with a rough brownish bark, not, as in /. Aquifolium, long, straight, green and 

 almost succulent ; hence it is that, though very flexible, the branches of /. opaca 

 have but little of that toughness which distinguishes the less ligneous shoots of 

 the European Holly, and may be broken without difiiculty. The leaves of /. 

 opaca are of a dull yellowish green and scarcely shining, of an opaque aspect, as 

 the specific name denotes, and in this respect much resemble those of Quercus 

 coccifera, usually less waved or flatter than in /. Aquifolium, and with far less 

 tendency in those of the higher branches to become unarmed or entire, those of 

 the oldest trees generally bearing leaves of the same form throughout, which, 

 excepting in the above particulars, exactly resemble those of the European spe- 

 cies. The branches of the common American Holly have, moreover, but little of 

 the upward tendency of those of the European tree, which on that account so 

 often assumes the pyramidal shape, but spread horizontally and ramify irregu- 

 larly. The berries are always smaller and usually of a duller red than in our 

 own, but like the leaves vary in size on different trees; the latter sometimes 

 assume a considerable degree of lustre, but their duller hue, comparative flatness 

 and opacity, together with the short, slender, ligneous character of the extreme 

 twigs, afford unerring diagnostics for distinguishing I. opaca from its cis-Atlantic 

 congener. Lastly, the American Holly is far more hardy than the European, 

 which is incapable of resisting the winters of the northern states, where the other 

 is indigenous. 



