THE HOLLY FAMILY 



AQUIFOLIACE^ de Candolle 



HIS family consists of 3 genera comprising about 290 species of small 

 trees or shrubs of temperate and tropical regions of both hemispheres. 

 They are of some economic value, especially the South American 

 Ilex paraguariensis St. Hilaire, the leaves of which constitute the 

 Mate, Yerba, or Paraguay tea as it is variously called, and which is of such great 

 importance as a beverage to the inhabitants of South America on account of its 

 tonic properties. The bark, leaves and berries of other species have also been used 

 as astringent tonics, alteratives or emetics, especially by the North American Indians. 

 The AquijoliacecB have alternate, evergreen or deciduous, simple, stipulate 

 leaves. The flowers are perfect, polygamous or dioecious, regular, mostly small 

 and white; their calyx, which usually persists, is 3- to 6-parted; corolla of 4 to 6 

 imbricated, deciduous petals alternate with the sepals and often united at the 

 base; stamens as many as the petals, their filaments erect; anthers introrse, the 

 sacs opening lengthwise; ovary superior, 4- to 8-ceUed; stigma usually sessile, 

 discoid or capitate; ovules i or 2 in each cavity. The fruit is a small berry-like 

 drupe, with 4 to 8 homy or crustaceous one-seeded nutlets; endosperm fleshy 

 and abundant; embryo cylindric. 



The genus Ilex is the most important as well as the predominating one ; another 

 genus indigenous in our area, Nemopanihes, is represented by the well-known Wild 

 or Moimtain holly of the swamps of northeastern North America, Nemopanihes 

 mucronata (Linnaeus) Trelease, which is almost always a small shrub, but has 

 been observed to become tree-like, 5 meters high, with a trunk 7 cm. in diame- 

 ter in Sussex County, New Jersey. 



THE HOLLIES 



GENUS ILEX LINN^US 



LEX comprises about 275 species, of which probably 22 occur in our 

 area. Nearly all are small trees or shrubs of wide distribution. Fos- 

 sil remains referable to the genus occur both in Europe and America. 

 They have alternate, thick, leathery or membranous, deciduous or 

 persistent leaves with entire, toothed or spiny margins. The flowers are small, 

 white or nearly so, in axillary clusters; the 4- to 6-lobed calyx is small and per- 

 sistent; corolla wheel-shaped, its petals 4 to 6, free or partly united, oval to ob- 



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