AQUIFOLIACE^. (hOLLT FAMILY.) 263 



round-heart-shaped crenate-toothed and veiny shining leaves (about 2' wide) on 

 slender petioles, and a, slender naked scape, l°-2° high, bearing a wand-like 

 spike or raceme of small and minutely-bracted white flowers. (Name from 

 yd\a, milk, — of no application to this plant.) 



1 . O. apliylla> L. — Open woods, Virginia and southward. June. 



Order 64. AQUIFOLIACE^. (Holly Family.) 



Trees or shrubs, with small axUlary i - S-merous flowers, a minute calyx 

 free from the 4 - 6-celled ovary and the 4 - 6-seeded berry-like drupe, the 

 stamens as many as the divisions of the almost or quite 4 - G-petalled corolla 

 and alternate with them, attached to their very base. — Corolla imbricated 

 in the bud. Anthers opening lengthwise. Stigmas 4-6, or unite.4, into 

 one, nearly sessile. Sfeeds suspended and solitary in each cell, anatro'pous, 

 ■with a minute embryo in fleshy albumen. Leaves simple, mostly alternate. 

 Flowers white or greenish. — A small family, here represented by only two 

 genera, since we include Frinos under Ilex. 



1. 11. EX, L. (Hex & Prinos, i.) Hollt. 



Flowers more or less dioeciously polygamous, but many of them perfect. 

 Calyx 4 - 6-toothed. Petals 4-6, separate, or united only at the base, oval or 

 obovate, obtuse, spreading. Stamens 4-6. The berry-like drupe containing 

 4-8 little nutlets. — Leaves alternate. Fertile flowers inclined to be solitary, 

 and the partly sterile flowers to be clustered in the axils. (The ancient Latin 

 name of the Holly-Oak rather than of the Holly.) 



^1. AQUIFOLIUM, Tourn. — Parts of the flowers crnnmordy in fours, somelimet 

 in fives or sixes, most of them perfect : drupe red, its nutlets ribbed, veiny, or one- 

 grooved on the back : leaves (mostly smooth) coriaceous and evergreen. 

 * Leaves armed with spiny teeth : trees. 



1. I. opiica, Ait. (American Holly.) Leaves oval, flat, the wavy 

 margins with scattered spiny teeth ; flowers in loose clusters along the base of 

 the young branches and in the axils; calyx-teeth acute. — Moist woodlands, 

 Maine to Penn. near the coast, and more common from Virginia southward. 

 June. — Tree 20° - 40° high ; the deep gi-een foliage less glossy, the ben-ies not 

 so bright red, and their nutlets not so veiny, as in the European Holly. 



# * Leaves serrate or entire, not spiny : shrubs, 



2. I. Casslne, L. (Casseka. Yaupon.) Leaves lance-ovate or elliptical, 

 crenaie (I'-l J' long) ; flower-clusters nearly sessile, smooth; calyx-teeth obtuse. 



Virginia and southward along the coast. May. — Leaves used for tea, as 



they were to make tlie celebrated black drink of the North Carolina Indians. 



3. I. niyrtifolia, Walt. Leaves linear-lanceolate or linear-oblong, spa.r'mglj 

 and sharply serrate or entire (I'long); peduncles slender and 3 - 9-flowered, or 

 the more fertile shorter and 1 -flowered, smooth; calyx-teeth acute. — Coast of 

 Virginia and southward. May. 



