AILANTHUS 



HOLLY OBDEB 



ILEX 29& 



Stamens inserted at the base of the disc, as many, or twice as many, as the 

 petals, very rarely numerous ; filaments free, naked, hairy, or scaly at the 

 base. Styles 2-5. Fruit a drupe, capsule, or samara. 



AILANTHUS (Tree of Heaven).— 

 A genus with 3 species of more or less 

 fetid trees having unequally pinnate 

 leaves, and small polygamous flowers in 

 terminal panicles. Calyx equally 5-lobed. 

 Petals 5, spreading. Disc 10-lobed. 

 Stamens 10 (absent in female flowers, 

 2-3 in hermaphrodite ones). Fruit of 1-5 

 linear oblong 1-seeded samaras. 



A. glandulosa. — A handsome Chinese 

 tree reaching a height of 60 feet in a 

 wild state, with large, pinnate, deciduous 

 leaves 1-3 ft. long, having 9-25 deeply 

 toothed or lobed leaflets. Flowers in 

 August, whitish-green, in large branched 

 terminal, clustered panicles, emitting a 

 disagreeable smell. They are succeeded 

 by oblong purple-brown winged and 

 peculiarly twisted fruits which give the 

 plant a very ornamental appearance. 



Culture and Propagation. — This is a 

 fine tree for the lawn or park, and thrives 

 in a Ught, loamy, well-drained soil. For 

 the first 10 or 12 years it grows rapidly 

 in favourable spots. It is easily increased 

 by slips of the roots or by means of the 

 suckers which are thrown up from the 

 base in great abundance, and sometimes 

 produce simple instead of compound 

 leaves. Seeds are freely produced by the 

 female flowers, and from them plants may 

 also be obtained if sown in cold frames as 

 soon as ripe. 



CNEORUM (Widow Wail). —A small 

 genus of ornamental under-shrubs with 

 alternate entire leathery leaves and 

 axillary cymes of small hermaphrodite 

 flowers. Sepals and petals 3-4. Eeoep- 

 tacle elongated, columnar, 3-4-ribbed. 

 Stamens 3-4, shorter than the elongated 

 suberect petals, and inserted on the middle 

 of the receptacle. Fruit consists of 1-4 

 roundish drupe-like cocci. 



C. tricoccum. — A smooth S. European 

 shrub 1-2 ft. high, with more or less 

 linear oblong leaves and clusters of yellow 

 bell-shaped flowers borne in the axils- 

 during the summer months and replaced 

 in autumn by the 3 -lobed fruits. 



Culture and Propagation. — This 

 species is fairly hardy in the neighbour- 

 hood of London when grown in warm 

 sheltered positions. It grows well in 

 ordinary good garden soU, but prefers a- 

 mixture of sandy ' loam and a little peat. 

 Cuttings of the young and fairly well- 

 ripened shoots will root freely in sandy 

 soil under a handlight, especially if placed 

 in gentle bottom heat. In the colder 

 parts of the kingdom this species would 

 require protection in winter. C. pulveru- 

 lentum from the Canary Islands may be 

 recognised by the greyish powder on its 

 leaves and branches. It is very rarely 



XXXI. ILICINEiE— Holly Order 



A natural order of 3 genera and about 150 species, mostly smooth and 

 evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves usually alternate, without stipules, 

 stalked, simple, leathery, often entire. Flowers small, regular, hermaphrodite, 

 polygamous, dioecious, or unisexual, in axillary or terminal cymes or clusters. 

 Calyx 3-6-partite, imbricate, often persistent. Petals 4-5, rarely more, free 

 or united at the base, hypogynous, deciduous. Stamens usually 4-5, 

 hypogynous, free or slightly adhering to the base of the petals. Fruit a 

 somewhat fleshy drupe, with 3-8 stones or ' pyrenes.' 



ILEX (Holly). — A genus containing 

 about 145 species of trees or shrubs, with 

 alternate, often shining, entire, toothed 

 or^piny leaves. Peduncles axillary, few- 

 flowered, or often branched. Flowers 

 white, often hermaphrodite. Calyx small, 

 4-5-clefl. CoroUa rotate 4- (rarely 5-6-) 



parted. Fruit a globose drupe with 4-8 

 stones. 



I. Aquifolium {Common Holly). — A 

 British and European tree 10-40 ft. high, 

 with ovate or oblong acute, shining, 

 wavy, spiny-toothed, deep green leaves. 

 Flowers in May and June on short 



