100 



Common Trees 



AMERICAN HOLLY 



Ilex opaca, Ait 



ALMOST EVERYBODY KNOWS the Christmas Holly, with 

 its spiny-pointed, leathery, evergreen leaves and its 

 bright-red berry clusters. 



The leaves are simple, alternate, evergreen, leathery, glossy, 

 with wavy margins and spiny teeth. 



The flow- 

 ers are of two 

 kinds. They 

 occur on dif- 

 ferent trees, 

 are white and 

 occur in few- 

 flowered clus- 

 ters. 



The fruit 

 is a bright- 

 red berry 

 about the size 

 of a pea. 



The bark is smopth, grayish to yellowish-brown. 



The wood is medium in weight and hardness, not tough, 

 chalky-white. It is used in turnery, cabinet-making, for 

 cheese containers, piano and organ keys. 



The American Holly is primarily a tree of the coastal 

 plains region of the South. Near the coast it is found as far 

 north as Massachusetts, and south to Florida, Texas and 

 Missouri. It reaches its greatest abundance in the coastal 

 plains of the South, its largest size in Texas, and its greatest 

 beauty in the foothills of the Carolinas. This tree was prob- 

 ably native in a few places in southern New York, including 

 Long Island and Staten Island. It has been planted locally 

 and is doing well where protected. This important tree 

 should be carefully protected. 



For many years an outpost of this tree near Cold Springs, 

 in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania ,was believed to be the 

 most northern inland occurrence, but on December 12, 1921, 

 the writer found a new station near McElhattan, in Clinton 

 county, Pennsylvania, at an elevation of 600 feet above sea 

 level — fully 100 miles farther north than any inland occur- 

 rence of this tree before recorded. This is now the most 

 northern inland station of Christmas Holly known in America. 



AMERICAN HOLLY 

 One-half natural sire. 



