IIanpbook of Tke.es of the !N"ort!iekn States and Canada. 321 



The Jlountain Holly, as its name implies, is 

 quite different from the other Hollies in being 

 distinctly a mountain-loving tree. In the high 

 AUi'ghanies of North and South Carolina and 

 Tennessee it attains its largest size, here some- 

 times growing to the height of 30 or 40 ft. 

 with slender branches forming a narrow pyra- 

 midal top and trunk sometimes 10 or 1"2 in. in 

 diameter. Tlie bark of trunk i-; of a brownish 

 gray color slightly roughened "willi lenlieels. 

 Excepting in these higli altitudes it is usually 

 slirnbhy. Quite as distinct as it is from other 

 Hollies in habitat is it also in its large leaves, 

 which are more suggestive of those of a 

 Plum than of a Holly, and in its somewhat 

 larger fruit. It is a handsome tree and would 

 doubtless be popular for ornamental planting 

 were it not for the fact that its beauty is 

 evanescent, as it drops both its leaves and its 

 fruit early. 



The wood is heavy, hard and strong, fine- 

 grained and nearly white but not of commercial 

 importance.! 



Leaves deciduous, ovate to ohlong-lanceolate. ^-r> 

 in. lon.ff, obtuse or acute at i)ase, acuminate or 

 acnto at a|iex. sliarply son-ate witli slender pointed 

 tectli. memliranaei'ous, proininontly arcuate 

 vf'ined, fflalirons darlc sreen aIiov(\ paler and sonii>- 

 what slabrous mi the [n-oniinent ^'eins heneath : 

 petioles slender, about !{, in. lonj^. Floicrrs in 

 Jime, in few-flowered cymes at tbe ends of short 

 epurs on the growth of the previous season, or 

 solitary on the new' ffro\\-th ; calyx lobes acute, 

 ciliate. Fruit subi^^lolinse. scarlet, sometimes 

 nearly i^ in. in diameter ; nutlet prominently 

 ribbed. 



1, A. \V., XI, 2.-2. 



