Handbook of Teeies or the NoETHEEisr States and Canada. 313 



The Holly is a beautiful evergreen, whose 

 leaves and bright berries add to the cheer of 

 Christmas-time in almost every home through- 

 out the land, and are familiar objects to many 

 who do not have an opportunity of seeing a 

 growing tree, though a common object in the 

 forests of the Southern States. There it at- 

 tains the height of 40 or 50 ft. with a narrow 

 pyramidal top of many horizontal or drooping 

 lateral branches and a smooth-barked trunk 

 occasionally 2 or 3 ft. (rarely more) in diame- 

 ter. 



It occupies well-drained slopes and bottom- 

 lands in company with various Oaks and Hick- 

 ories, the Red Cedar, Whitewood, Magnolias, 

 Hornbeam, etc., rarely if ever forming exclu- 

 sive forests. Few trees equal it in ornamental 

 value, especially in late autumn and winter, 

 when its associates are mostly bare and leaf- 

 less and its bright red berries .show in strong 

 contrast to its dark green leaves. But alas! 

 with many a fine tree its beauty causes its 

 downfall, so great is the demand for its sprays 

 for Christmas decoration. 



The wood is light, a cubic foot weighing 

 36.26 lbs., tough, close-grained and nearly 

 white, and is valued in turnery, in cabinet- 

 making, etc.i 



Leaves persistent, elliptical to obovato. spin.v- 

 tipped and with few spiny teeth or oceasionall.y 

 entire, thick, coriacious, dull dark green and cen- 

 trally grooved above, paler, yellowish green and 

 pubescent beneath. Flowers in the spring, from 

 the axils of the new leaves or scattered at the base 

 of the growth, the staminate in 3-9-flowered 

 cymes, the pistillate singly or 2-3 together ; calyx 

 acute, cilliate. Fruit: drupe subglobose, J/j in. in 

 diameter, red or rarely yellow ; nutlets promi- 

 nently ribbed. - 



1. A. W., Ill, 52. 



2. For genus see p. 445. 





